Mystical Children
by fudje
Summary: Mutants' powers grow with them, and so do demons. Mystique's children are going through some changes. Growing wings is tough. Romy, but it ain't the main focus.
1. Enter the Cajun

Disclaimer: The X-Men, all other characters from the Marvel universe, the Marvel universe itself, and the trademark Marvel are the property of Marvel, strangely enough. I'm pretty sure "X-Men: Evolution" is, too. If anyone feels like coming after me with a big stick, play nice or I'll turn evil on you ;p

* * *

_**Mystical Children**_

Just as people grow, so does their sense of self. As their sense of self grows, so does their power. With mutants, this is a painfully observable growth. With demons, it is generally just painful to those they affect.

Thus far: X-Men build, etc., Mystique is Kurt's blood and Rogue's adoptive mother, Kurt travels through demon dimension, Rogue's absorption not as temporary as we thought, Apocalypse BS, Rogue saves the world, Kurt and Rogue shun Mystique, Professor X presents a heavily abbreviated view of the future, we go from here.

* * *

"Well, for something that took a whole day, that debriefing was certainly 'de brief,'" Rogue said darkly, mimicking Gambit at the end. "Who wants to vote on me getting the rest out of the Prof and telling it with the names actually in there?"   
The show of hands indicated that everyone except Scott and Jean - and Piotr until Kitty nudged him and whispered in his ear - thought that this was an excellent proposition. Even Logan, laughing for once, raised three claws in the air before departing from the rest of the group.

"You can't be serious!" exclaimed Jean, who knew she had something to hide from a 'private conversation' with the Professor. "If he didn't tell us particular details, he had a reason."

Rogue turned to face Jean and grabbed her shoulders. She looked to the telepath like she was about to slap her, and the gaggle of mutants stopped behind them. "Are you kidding? The Professor's head is almost as messed up as Mystique's! Beside, you _know_ I don't like havin' all these voices in my head - and the Prof ain't exactly the picture of a quiet psyche. No way was I actually gonna do that." She looked to the rest of them, asking them "Y'all knew that, right?"  
This was met by a general chorus of nod's and yeahs, including Scott shrugging, and smiling crookedly at Jean.

"Oh, right, of course you were joking," Jean said, backing up, and let out a nervous laugh. It was bad enough having to fight a mind-controlled Professor Xavier, but knowing she was later going to be the one on the side of evil was killing her inside (of course, neither she nor Charles had the slightest idea that it wasn't _actually_ her), and pretty much anything related to it made her jumpy.

The group as a whole started moving again, following behind a partially storming Rogue, and smaller groups broke off, until finally it was only the small group of Scott, Jean, Kurt, Kitty, Rogue, and Piotr entering the foyer from one of the back doors, such that it was only a familiar clicking sound that alerted Rogue to a presence in the room. As she stopped suddenly, everyone else did too - sometimes her mood was enough to command the people around her. Trying to keep her head under control, she dredged up the memory of taking out Sabretooth, and from there concentrated on any memory of his she could find. She sniffed the air, and listening harder, she located the source of the sound - a certain Cajun shuffling cards on the couch that was maybe five feet in front of her. If she wasn't seething anger before, she most certainly was now. Signalling the others to follow, she walked forwards until she could see the top of a mess of hair, and then she pounced on him over the back of the couch, grabbing his coat collar.

Remy, seeing the southern gal straddling him, knees planted by his waist, hunched up and scowling, was so shocked he actually dropped a card, but he regained his composure quickly, setting the rest of the deck down on the coffee table next to him.

"Well, well, chere, looks like de Rogue is a little angry," he said, grinning. "I wonder why that could be?" He knew he was skating on thin ice.

Rogue was less interested in playing games with him even than she normally was. She pulled him from the couch until their faces were an inch apart. "Where were you?"

Still grinning cheesily, LeBeau replied, "pull me a little closer and you can see for y'self, chere." As an afterthought, he added, "You can see Gambit's reasonin', too," and grinned wider.

Rogue, predictably disgusted, dropped him, and stood up from the couch. Remy half - sat up, and crossed his legs. "O'course, I would figure chere would want it from the horse's mouth, not his mind." He patted the seat next to him.

"So?" prompted Rogue, glaring at him, and remaining standing.

Kurt slid into the seat on the far side of the couch from Gambit, and relaxed into a position almost as laid back as the Cajun's own. "Why do you vant to know vere this dummkopf has been, sis'?" LeBeau scowled at him and flicked some dust in his direction - it burned in the air just in front of his face. Kurt didn't flinch at all.

"He could've been there - he could've helped," replied Rogue.

"I'd also like to know how he managed to get in here without setting of any of the security systems," Scott interjected, stopping next to Rogue. If his hand hadn't been around Jean's waist, the three of them would have looked like an inquisition panel.

"That's a tough trick to learn, mon ami, an'it would take years to tell," Remy replied. "As for your little Apocalypse scenario -"

Kitty scoffed. "Little?!"

"_As for your little Apocalypse scenario_, I'd have done more harm than good, believe me. I coulda' done little more than throw dust in the man's face, and if I got too close to one of them pyramids, it woulda' all been over."

"Yeah, Cajun, it would," Rogue accused. "You could've stopped the whole thing with your power, and you didn't. What gives?"

"You misunderstand, chere," Remy replied, holding out his hands. "It woulda' _all_ 've been over. The whole sh'bang. The world woulda' gone, 'boom.' Those 'tings sucked their energy right outta' th'Earth, and I couldn'tve separated 'em if I tried."

"I don't believe you," Rogue stated as a matter-of-fact.

"My memories can't lie, chere," said LeBeau, and he removed one of his gloves and held out his bared hand.

Rogue slapped the offending appendage away dismissively. "OK, swamp rat, I'll accept that for now. But answer me this question: What are you doing here?"

"I dunno, chere. I mean, I coulda' stayed wit' Jean-Luc and be stealin' for the rest o' my days, or I coulda' tried to make amends wit' Bella Donna, 'though it would be quicker to just jump off a cliff and be done with it. Comes down to it, I coulda' picked a plush spot in town and taken up a collection, made myself a pretty dollar, and then bought the rest o' my way into a life o' riches. " Winking at Rogue, "I guess my heart was tellin' me to come 'ere."

"Taken up a collection?" asked Scott, raising an eyebrow. As if to demonstrate, the Cajun tossed Rogue a wallet - _her_ wallet.

"There better not be anything missing," the girl growled as Gambit picked up and started shuffling the deck again.

"Oh, there isn't," replied LeBeau, and then he took an apparently random card from his deck and handed it to her. "'cept dis. I had to know, chere."

Rogue took the card from him, and when she looked at it, she smirked.

Queen of Hearts.

"You are one slimy rat, LeBeau," she said, tucking the card into her wallet. "Why didn't you just band up with Magneto again or somethin'?"

"Why don't ya'ask metal face over there that same question?" Remy replied, pointing a thumb in Piotr's direction. "I guarantee his answer's to the same gen'ral effect. He got nothin' to hold 'gainst us no more."

"If you're looking for vengeance, Gambit, the X-Men aren't about that," stated Scott, who thought he could see where and more importantly why this was going.

"Me neither, Scooter," replied LeBeau, standing. "In a past life, maybe. But if dis 'ere Gambit before you was into revenge, I would've done as Jean-Luc asked, and taken down the Rippers from the inside. But I hear that th' X-Men are all about new beginnings... and I _need_ one o' those."

"Well, you're welcome to stay with us, Mr. LeBeau," no-one had noticed the Professor entering the room, "provided you can stay out of trouble. But I must ask, who are these 'Rippers?'"

"Assassins' guild," interjected Rogue, "They got a grudge against Remy. First, because he's a LeBeau, and second because he's married to their leader's grand daughter - not on good terms."

"Don' worry, Professor Xavier, they won't attack a house wit' lots of people, even to get to me," supplied Gambit. "You're a bit far outta' their territory here, anyway."

"I'll take your word on that, Mr. LeBeau," said Charles. "Kitty, could you show Mr. Rasputin and Mr. LeBeau to a guest room each? Thankyou." With that, he left the room.

"What am I, like an usher now?" said Kitty under her breath. But she brightened up and grabbed Piotr's arm. "C'mon, ya big softie, let's get you settled in."

As Remy followed the two out, he put a gloved finger to his lips, and brushed it along Rogue's jaw, as she complied to his pulling her chin around, and before breaking eye contact, he pressed his finger to her lips. Only Kurt saw this - he just shook his head and teleported to his room.

"Y'know, I think I'm gonna pack it in early," Rogue announced to Scott and Jean, still watching Gambit walk away. Walking out herself, that left only the two of them in the room.

"Why would Gambit say that he'd taken the Queen of Hearts from Rogue's wallet? What would she be carrying a card around for?" Jean wondered aloud.

"I dunno, Jean, but he only had one deck, right? Well, look at that." Scott pointed to the card that LeBeau had dropped earlier. "Think it means something?"

On the floor lay the Queen of Hearts.

* * *

And there is the first chapter of my first "X-Men: Evolution" fanfic. It hasn't been horribly well proofread, so there may be some errors in there. They'll be fixed by the time the second chapter is up.  
It won't be all a Rogue/Gambit thing. This was basically starting it out by putting Remy and Piotr in the right place.  
Drop me a review if you please - you never know, I might find time to review one of yours ;-) 


	2. Tails

Hank McCoy looked down at the two cards in his hand, and then back at the three on the table. He had a flush. They had to _know_ he had a flush — he'd shown every sign he had one. Yet the Cajun's burning eyes showed no hint of nervousness, and Logan was stern-faced, growling at his cards. At least one of them was bluffing, he was sure, but he couldn't tell — and the Jack, King, and Ace of Hearts were out on the table, so there was the possibility that the other one could have a Royal.  
He shook his head. "Fold." He laid his cards face down on the table.

Remy raised an eyebrow and shifted his gaze to Wolverine. The Canadian stared right back at him, and growled "check." It often confused Hank that Logan was so quick to state his play.

Gambit smiled. "So, we lay 'em down, mon ami." Logan laid his cards down first – he had a straight. 10 of Diamonds, Queen of Clubs. Still smiling, Remy laid his cards down. "Royal Flush, mes amis. Read 'em and weep."

There she was again, staring at him. Logan hit the table and looked away. The Queen of Hearts. He should have known by now to expect Gambit to have 'his lucky lady' in his hand. Or if it wasn't her, the Ace of Spades would come to get him. Remy's skill at card games – or any kind of gambling for that matter – was almost as scary as the two things he was actually afraid of. As he was considering this, one of those things walked into the kitchen. Logan wasn't sure why, but he really did fear her — whether it was the fact that she was so damn obviously powerful, or that she was so brave – she wasn't exactly like him in that she wasn't so much fearless, but would run headlong into trouble anyway, and he knew he wouldn't be able to stand it if she got hurt. For that matter, it might have been because she'd slipped once, and called him 'Mr. Howlett' – fortunately no one else had noticed, but it dredged up a few painful memories of his past life oh so long ago, and made him wonder just how much else she knew. Maybe he should try and get those answers from _her_?

"I hope you ain't gamblin'" said Rogue, grabbing a bottle from the refrigerator. "Y'know Kitty comes down here for midnight snacks, don't you?" She sat down in a chair on the unoccupied side of the table. She popped the cap of what on inspection turned out to be some of Logan's super secret stash of beer (it was hidden in the small gap behind the freezer compartment, which had obligingly formed a nice ledge of frost), and gulped a mouthful.

"You shouldn't be drinking that, chere." It was odd to actually hear concern in the Cajun's voice.

"Just yeh traighe an' stop meh." Spoken like a true southerner. "And stop calling me that. I'm not your 'chere,' never will be."

Remy grinned, and then reached out to touch the base of the beer bottle.

"I wouldn't," warned Logan. "Apart from getting hops everywhere, and even you should be able to smell that that's the real stuff and _won't_ clean up easy, it'll get Stripes mad."

"And you don't want that to happen," continued 'Stripes' for him.

"He's right though, Rogue," Beast chided. "I must admit also that I would never have thought you the type to drink under the legal age."

The young belle looked at Hank as though she hadn't noticed him there before, and admittedly his fur did give him a tendency to fade into the shadows – not as much as Rogue's foster brother, but the girl hadn't been paying much attention. "I'd never have thought you'd 'be the type' to be playing Texas Hold'em for keeps, Mr. McCoy. I guess we learn something new every day." She turned her attention to the broader audience again, and asked "So what's the damage?"

Logan jerked his head in Gambit's direction. "See if you can guess."

Remy smiled and shrugged. "Dey called Remy 'Gambit' fo' a reason, mon ami."

Rogue smirked. "So let's stop playing baby games and I can teach that swamp rat a lesson," she offered.

"No can do, Rogue," replied Henry, "Logan and myself are a little out of pocket thanks to your gracious kidnapper."

"Besides," continued Logan, "Since Elf took off to his room, we're short a dealer. Unless you want to play Gumbo one on one, and you know how much fun that is."

"That'd be a ball," snorted Rogue. "Bah. Can't sleep, can't play. What a night." With that, she brought her previously clenched left hand to her mouth and tilted her head back, and then downed the rest of her stolen beer.

"You really shouldn't take those with alcohol," Hank accused, realising what his reclusive student had just done.

"Why not?" asked Logan. "It helps them work their magic."

"My thoughts exactly," confirmed Rogue, cutting the scientist off before he actually answered the rhetoric. She stood and tossed the empty bottle to Logan. "Do whatever you do with those, James," she said with an already wavering voice, "I'm gonna go try an' crash."

To the others, it seemed innocent enough, as though she was quoting something, but Logan shuddered at the use of that name. He didn't quite know why, although he had a feeling in his gut that he should.

"'Night y'all," the girl finished, walking maybe a little too close to LeBeau as she left the room.

She was still composed enough to look disgusted when he responded "Bon nuit, chere," brushing her waist and hand with his own gloved fingers as she cascaded past, but she smiled wistfully as she walked the corridor. Gambit whistled through his teeth as he looked back to the others. "'Till next week, mes amis?"

"Whatever," replied Logan. "See if I can wipe that smirk off your face."

* * *

Despite already feeling rather groggy from the drugs, as she passed her brother's room Rogue was sure she could hear whimpering from inside. Stopping and listening at the door, she could discern some familiar lines:

_Unser tägliches Brot gib uns heute.  
Und vergib uns unsere Schuld,  
wie auch wir vergeben unsern Schuldigern.  
Und führe uns nicht in Versuchung,  
sondern erlöse uns von dem Bösen._

The Lord's Prayer, in German. She knew it inside out and backwards, despite having never prayed it once in her life, in that or any other language. After Kurt tailed off, she thought she heard actual whimpering.

"Kurt?" she asked. The whimpering stopped. "Are you okay?"

She thought she heard him whisper, "I just vant to be more normal," and then there was silence.

"I know you're in there, Kurt. What's going on?"

Even softer, "Just go avay," and more silence.

"Kurt?" The life force absorbing mutant _felt_ the intense concentration in the air. She knew the feeling, it was the foreboding of pain you got when you were about to hurt yourself intentionally. Scared, she tried the doorknob. It was unsurprisingly locked.

There were any number of powers that would be useful to her now, but anger was now ebbing to the surface to join her fear, and it was the psyche with the most repressed angst, of the one who would be known later as Phoenix, that came with it. It always came as a shock to the X-Men that Rogue, one so timid with her own powers, could be so ruthless with everyone else's. The door and its frame exploded in a shower of splinters and chunks of wall fell from around it as a burning power of telekinesis engulfed the southern gal. She felt her brother's thoughts, and screamed his name. The last thing Rogue saw before she passed out was him holding a knife as close to the base of his tail as he could.

"Mein Gott! Rogue!" yelled Nightcrawler, tossing the knife away and scooping her up. "Speak to me, meine schwester," he pleaded. "Think, Kurt, think! Take her to ze infirmary!" Deciding it best not to try teleporting his fragile passenger there, he ran her downstairs.

No-one noticed Jean drop the book she was reading and pass out on her bed.

* * *

Hmm. Setting up the scene took longer than the actual point of this chapter. Alright, so I could have kept writing, but I'm tired and this is probably the best place to leave it if I don't want to be up until 2am.  
Next chapter, Kurt unknowingly begins a strange transformation, and Rogue seems to develop a bizarre urge that is related to not one but two of the Institute's teaching staff! Stay tuned! Oh, and please drop me a review if you have the time :-) 


	3. Fury

Kurt sighed, staring at the sleeping form of his adopted sister. Hank had done all the usual (and in this case pointless) stuff – so she was hooked her up to heart, blood pressure, and breathing monitors. All indicated that she was perfectly fine, and yet the fuzzy blue teleporter was still anxious. Every time Rogue twitched, sighed, or rolled, his tail twitched as he scrutinised every monitor, despite Beast's insistence that it just meant she was dreaming.

His tail, that had started this. Traitorous thing. It had always been the object of people's despise outside of the circus (and he had oft wondered how the audiences were so blind to the obvious fact that a costume-tail was not prehensile while the 'Incredible Nightcrawler, Dæmonic Acrobat Extraordinaire' could swing from the trapeze on it), and then when he was about to be rid of it, he'd been stopped. '_Well, by another "freak"_', he figured, but he knew full well that Rogue never thought of them like that ('_No, maybe once, before she actually learned what we are_'), and she'd thump anyone who said otherwise. '_Well, I guess Amanda won't be complaining about the coffee, but– Why am I thinking about coffee?!_' Kurt looked up to see what had interrupted his thoughts.

"Coffee, mes amis?" a certain fire-eyed man asked from not far away. It earned him a glare that he didn't feel was warranted. "'Tis Gambit's special morning brew, strong and creamy."

"Thanks," said Hank, taking one of the four mugs from the tray that LeBeau had brought into the room. He took a sip, and then pulled a strange face. "What exactly is in this?"

"Any spices I could find that would go, mon ami. Normally I try for a hotter result, but you don't seem to have much of the kind of spices you can put in coffee here, let alone one of these."

"I pray we never do," replied Hank, but he continued drinking. "This is good in it's own way, if a little… different. You should try it, Kurt — you could use a little wake-up kick."

"I promise, mon ami, 'tis not poisoned." Remy grinned, and set down the tray on the table next to where Kurt was perched on his chair. Then he asked, "Where did Logan go?"

"Rounding up the kids to take them to school," replied a voice from the door. The Canadian looked, concerned, to Kurt. "You coming, Elf?"

"If it's all the same to you mein freund, I think I'll vait for Rogue to wake up," replied Kurt before taking one of the mugs and sipping from it. "Blech!"

Logan sniffed the air. "You're not going to drink that?"

With a foam moustache contrasting heavily with his indigo fur, Kurt shook his head. "French coffee."

Logan walked over and took the cup from the unprotesting boy, and downed it in one go. "Ah, that takes me back. You make this?" he directed at Remy, who nodded. "Needs either more or less spice, but other than that it's just like we used to get back in…" He shook his head. "I don't want to think about that now. Last chance, Fuzzball. We're going."

Kurt just watched him leave. Then he turned back to Rogue, and sighed. "Wake up, sis'"

"Yes, c'mon, chérie, de fuzzy one is making Remy nervous wid 'is worry."

'_Wake up, chérie! Fuzzy one Remy nervous wid worry._' The voice echoed in Rogue's head. It was odd, as though it couldn't decide if it was German or the kind of accent you got from the French quarter of Nouvelle Orleans. Then the screaming started. Seemingly, there were hundreds of voices. '_Wake up!_" they screamed at her in cacophony.

"Rogue?" That one voice was clear. Mr McCoy. Rogue blinked a little, and was met, in her dream she presumed, with a strange image — Kurt with burning red on yellow eyes, brown hair, a white moustache and … Four arms and four legs?

Screaming, Rogue shot up, disconnecting the heart and breath probes and causing those monitors to flatline while her blood pressure went up — which would be a rare medical anomaly had the reading been correct. Only then did she manage to focus, and saw how she'd managed to form the image. In front of her was Remy to her left, and Kurt to her right. She started laughing.

"Chérie lives!" exclaimed Remy. "But what is de joke?"

'_So we're back to «Chérie,» now, are we? When will he give up?_' Rogue shook her head, still laughing, and then sniffed. "Is that coffee?" she asked. Gambit nodded.

"You don't want any of that right now, I think, Rogue," protested Beast as she sat up.

Rogue paused for a second, and then her reply was "Whatever," and she walked over and gulped down the remaining untouched coffee. "Needs more spice," she commented.

Hank raised an eyebrow at the Cajun, who shrugged. "'Tis a gift, mon ami," he said.

"Shoulda' guessed it was the swamp rat that made it," accused Rogue as Kurt tackled her. "Hey! Bare arms here!" she warned.

"Vhat happened?! Vun second you're bursting mein door down, zen you collapse…?" her brother demanded.

Rogue concentrated for a second. "I remember… Genetic theory?"

Hank laughed. "So that explains why Jean woke up with a hangover. See, Rogue? It hurts people." By now his laugh had already turned into a scowl.

Kurt's brow furrowed. "Vhat are you talking about?" he asked.

"Never you mind, m'sieur Wagner," interjected Remy, "La fille can tell you later if she wants."

"I see you still have a tail," Rogue commented in an attempt to move the subject of conversation away from herself.

Kurt looked shocked, and guilty. He'd failed to mention this when he told Hank what had happened. "What do you mean?" he asked.

"See, now this is why _you're_ always the dealer," accused Gambit, "you can't keep your emotions to y'self, can you?"

Kurt sighed. The Cajun? Showing concern for _him_? "It's a litany I go through every now and then. I never actually get around to cutting it off…."

"You were going to remove your tail?" asked Hank.

"I know, Mr. McCoy, it vouldn't solve anything. In fact, it vould probably put me off balance for qvite some time. I just vant to be normal, but I will never be…."

"Ain't that a fact?" confirmed Rogue as she looked down at the clock in the corner. "It's Monday, right? We've got a new principal at school! If we're not there at rollcall, they'll mark us down as troublemakers for sure." She paused. "…again. Has Logan gone yet? Is Scott around?"

"Gone, and gone, Rogue," replied Hank, "Scott had to drive Jean in to college for the dual reasons that she was still recovering from some else's enterprising with sleeping pills and alcohol, and her SUV is in the repair shop. You really should get some more rest anyway."

"Rogue? _You_ are in a hurry to get to _school_?" asked Kurt. "Something is very wrong vith you." He shrugged. "Vell, ve don't have much choice, there's nothing in ze garage."

From the door, Rogue held a set of keys in the air and replied "That not quite true" before taking off down the corridor. "Get some tough clothes on, Kurt!"

The furry blue boy furrowed his brow, and then realisation dawned as he heard Gambit patting his pockets.

"The hell?" asked the Cajun, "How? _Chérie!_"

"_Tricks o' de trade, cher!_" came floating back through the air, an accent mimmicking his own. Kurt shrugged as Remy looked at him, and ported after his sister.

"River rat. Worse than a swamp rat," LeBeau proclaimed, starting to smile. By the time Hank adressed him, he was grinning.

"I wouldn't know, having never been bitten by either." Beast looked quizically at the Cajun. "Why do you smile so?"

"Remy was thinking, does Chérie know what she just said?" He drew a breath. "I hope so."

* * *

Standing in black leather leggings and jacket (with red trimming), Rogue tapped impatiently on the side of her trophy. Her eyes darting around, she caught a whiff of sulphur, and by the time the dimensional gate had closed, Kurt's helmet was already in the air. Jumping sideways slightly, the acrobat caught it with ease, and secured it on his head as he bounded towards his sister and the motorcycle.

She mounted the bike before putting on her own open faced helmet, and as Kurt grabbed her around the waist she asked, "What took you so long? We're gonna be late!" and then tapped her sunglasses so that they fell on to the bridge of her nose.

Before the boy could answer, she'd kicked the bike into gear and they were off.

"So, you managed to steal ze thief's keys?!" the elf yelled. Rogue nodded. "How?!"

"Well, I've absorbed him, so I know all his tricks!" She took pause while the X-Van roared past in the other direction. "I just had to find one he didn't know!"

In the van, Logan smiled as he caught a glimpse of Kurt's tail in the rear view mirror. "Yeah, she's a tough one alright," he said to himself, figuring who was at the front of the motorcycle.

"Vhy are you slowing down?" asked Kurt as the bike neared an embankment with a rough track cut in it.

The reply was "Hang on tight! I'm takin' a shortcut," and it was all he could do the follow his sister's directions as she steered it up on to the track.

About 5 minutes later, they'd reached the school without major incident, but as they crawled the carpark and Rogue was surveying for a free spot, or even a little hole near something she could chain the bike to, Kurt noted a minor trouble.

"They're handing 'tardy' slips on the way in already," he complained.

"Not a problem, I'm final year," replied Rogue dismissively as she cut the ignition. Then she realised. Her brother was not. Expertly wrapping the chain around the bike's bolt, the front tyre, and the iron staple she'd found (it had been holding a concrete barrier into the ground. Over the years, the concrete had fractured and been ripped off by the constant barrage of attacks from the weather and people who couldn't park their cars properly), she suggested "Port us in. We can say we were in such a hurry that we forgot to check in at the front." After all, it was true, not that it mattered much, and she'd snuck in around the back previously and claimed to have rushed past the roll bearers and it had worked – she was so reclusive by nature that no-one noticed her quietly coming or going. Under the circumstances she was used to sneaking in under, Kurt's teleporting would be far too conspicuous, but they weren't so late yet that there wouldn't be a lot of people milling around still.

"Vhy didn't I think of zat?!" exclaimed Kurt, and when they had completed – getting comfortable after hauling their arses of the bike – he took his sister by the hand and ported them into the gym.

By sheer chance, they landed right next to Kitty. Before even turning to face them, she had heard the familiar BAMF and smelled the sulphur, and the adolescent was already talking at her friends. "Hey, you like decided to show up after all, Fuzzy," she said before she caught up with what her eyes saw. "Oh, hey, Rogue, you're up! Is that your new uniform?"

"Would I be wearing my uniform at school?" the southerner asked sarcastically as they started walking up the stands together.

"Well, it's not like anyone doesn't know who we are already, right?" When there was no reply, Kitty continued dejectedly with "Good to see you're, like, already in high spirits or whatever."

As it happened, Rogue hadn't intended to be rude to Kitty, just she'd caught a nondescript figure staring up at them, and she'd lost them again. As people settled down around them, she caught an apparently different figure walking towards them, but she knew it was the same person.

Risty Wilde. "Hey Risty! Over here" yelled Kitty, standing up and waving.

'_So it's only the inner circle of the Professor, Logan, Storm, Mr McCoy, Scott, and Perkypants that know, then,_' thought Rogue, smirking at the nickname she'd assigned Jean.

As the 'Englishwoman' sat down next to her, though, Rogue's smile faded. "What are _you_ doing here?" she snarled.

"Nice to see you, too, Missy," replied Risty in a bright, but sarcastic tone. It was a detail of the English statement that Mystique had perfected well.

"How can you even pretend?" continued Rogue.

Risty looked away, and then back. In a quiet voice that was Mystique's own, she replied "Because I really meant what I said that day Rogue. And I should have remembered that when Mesmero came to me, and that it's always wise to think carefully about anything Irene says because it's often ambiguous."

"Aunt Irene?!" hissed Rogue.

Risty put a hand over her mouth, and her eyes flashed yellow as Mystique nearly lost concentration on what she was doing. "Did I say Irene? I meant Destiny. She's a seer I know," she covered.

Rogue had picked up the implication already, though. "Aunt Irene is a seer called 'Destiny,' and I'm guessing that makes her a mutant. Certainly explains a few things, like why she never had to use her cane, and why you were telling her in that car that you 'couldn't lose me to Xavier'. Do you use _her_ too?"

Mystique gave up on covering at this point. "No, my relationship with Irene has always been different from that, more… mutual. It should have been with you, too. I'm sorry."

"Save it," snapped Rogue.

By now Kurt, who was sitting right next to Rogue on the other side, had noted the foreign voice in her conversation with Risty. Leaning in, he asked, "What are you talking about?"

Rogue grunted. Leaning back, she announced quietly, "Guess what Raven Darkholme and Risty Wilde have in common?"

"Vhat?" he whispered, looking at Risty. Her eyes turned to their natural constant yellow for a moment, and Kurt answered his own question. "Everything," he sighed.

He was about to turn and tell Kitty, when Rogue slapped a gloved hand over his mouth and dragged his head back around. "Don't. Tell. Anyone." she hissed.

"Vhat?!" he asked in a husk voice, shocked.

"Just don't, okay?" replied Rogue. "I knew this already – since that day at the concert, and I doubt she'd have come to see me as Risty without a _really_ good reason."

"Alright,"he sighed. "Even Kitty?"

"Especially Kitty."

At the sound of her name, Kitty perked up, and she grabbed Kurt and spun him around. "What're you talking about?" she demanded.

Kurt shrugged. "Just, you know, stuff," he explained.

"Hmph." Most people just sighed. Kitty spoke it, with her voice and her whole body. In her usual curious manner, she leaned around Kurt to see what the other two were doing.

By the time she could see around Kurt, Rogue had on her lap a piece of paper with a grid of dots on it. A few of them were joined together. "What?!" she snapped.

Kitty smirked. "Squares? Didn't you, like, get over that already?" Risty just shrugged at her, so she went back to paying attention to the nothing that was yet happening on the floor.

Turning back to his 'family,' Kurt asked Risty "So what do you have to say for yourself, mother?"

Risty's British accent replied with "Well, I thought you'd like to know I was back in the Bayville area, doing… well, nothing basically." Then as the other students shushed around them, she continued, "and I'm a little concerned with the identity of your new principal." She indicated the man now walking into the Gym. "Tell Xavier I think something's about to happen, and for once I'm not part of it."

Rogue looked down to the floor, and a feeling of recognition hit her. The man walking to where the other staff were had dark brown hair that was greying around the temples. When he made it to the stand and looked at the student body he revealed a monocle over his left eye, the ball of which was almost completely white over, and a scar disected the skin around it top to bottom ('_Clearly he's blind in that eye, so why would he have a monocle? Just replace it with an eyepatch…_'). He wore a long green coat, and had one of those three day growths that you could swear was permanent. Perhaps the second strangest thing about him, was that he was smoking a cigar, something that was expressly forbidden not only by the school rules, but by law, and it was making the other staff nervous. Or maybe that was because he gave the distinct impression that he ought to be carrying with him an assault rifle, chain gun, _and_ grenade launcher, along with a cluster of hand-helds for good measure.

One of the teachers – the stupid drama one, that Rogue could never remember the name of – stood up with a mic. "I'd like to introduce you all to our new principal,"

There was a ripping noise as three bone claws extended from both of Rogue's hands.

"Nicholas Fury."

* * *

Woo hoo! A third chapter! Umm, yeah, that stuff that I said would be happening this chapter really will happen next chapter. Just at the 2800 word mark I realised that I probably ought to keep it broken up into chunks of less than 6000 words (And after that long delay, too. tsk tsk, just imagine scheduling a thunderstorm for yesterday). Anyhoo, atmospheric ionisation permitting, that'll up later tonight.

FYI, Stuff in '_Single quotes and italics_' is generally people's thoughts unless it's otherwise obvious.

Thanks to all my reviewers so far, all two of you! Especially Miss Poisonous and Zephyr, Master of Chaos!


	4. Horns

"Nicholas Fury," the drama teacher finished, and handed the mic over to him.

Sheathing the suddenly developed claws, Rogue looked over to her right. "Risty–".  
But she was gone. Rogue decided that it was probably stupid to have expected otherwise.

"Logan's buddy is our principal?" The silence had been broken by Kitty, and only Kitty. The rest of the school was silent, even the Brotherhood.

Rogue looked over at her. "I'd hardly call them 'buddies'," she retorted. '_No, more like "mates,"_' The voice of St. John said in her head.

She didn't remember ever absorbing Pyro, or Logan. She presumed that had happened with the whole Mesmero thing, and the only thing she could remember from that was from entering that cave, wanting to tell Mystique to stop, that she could walk away from the psychotic clown, watching her slip away into that hole in the last door, and then a brief time when she actually had control of herself, and she was about to scream for and at her stone mother, and then the next thing she could remember was looking at the back of her bare hands, and then Apocalypse … absorbing _her_. She had before then had no idea what that felt like, and in truth it felt a hundred times worse to her, on an emotional level at least — there she was, for once feeling her powers actually work, but in two directions, and a _mummy_, an old, dead artifact, was beating her at her own game.

It was in this moment that she realised exactly what Apocalypse's power was, and why it made him the only mutant she'd ever come across that she could actually definitely say was stronger than her. He was using her own power against her, not just in possession of a stronger power of absorption. The same reason Mystique had been turned to stone, and everything they threw at the spheres would come back at them ten fold.

"Rogue? Are you okay?"

She was looking at the back of her hands now. There were no holes in her gloves. '_Odd,_' she thought, and then looked up to see the shining face of Kitty's new best friend, Danielle Moonstar, who was sitting in the seat previously occupied by Risty.

"Did you do that?" she asked the newcomer, indicating her own hands.

"Yeah, sorry," replied Dani. "You totally zoned out and I just had to know what was on your mind. Now you answer my question: Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine," said Rogue as she looked down to see a more familiar picture of Nick Fury, with entirely grey hair and the eye-patch. He was still smoking the cigar, though. "Was Risty actually here?"

"The purple-haired girl? Yes, she was real. Well, that blue lady, anyway. So was that ripping sound, but I'm not sure where that came from. Is your brother okay?"

No-one had ever spoken to Rogue of Kurt as her brother before, excepting Kurt himself. She looked over to see him rubbing his forehead. "Kurt, do you have a headache or something?"

"It's nothing," the blue 'demon' replied, but when he removed his hands from his face, Rogue saw two blood-red spots sticking out from his forehead. They didn't seem to be actually bleeding, but Rogue knew that could just be hidden by the image inducer. It was programmed to show where skin was broken, but the complexities of liquid flow were too much to simulate.

"If you say so," Rogue said in the same tone as you might say 'Yes, I see the little green alien on your shoulder….' Her brow furrowed.

"Students." Colonel Fury had finally come around to actually saying something. Apparently this was because he'd wanted to finished his cigar, as that was all he said before taking one last long drag from it, and stubbing the remains out on the pedestal. It was sufficient to get the attention of everyone who had started chattering during his surveying silence.  
"It may not come as a shock to you to discover that I am not like any principal you have had before, here or anywhere else."

"What, are you a mutant?" sneered one of the general dumbarses sitting in the jocks section.

Fury grinned. "Not remotely," he snickered, "however, it is interesting, and surprisingly topical that you brought that up. Surprising only because I'm sure it's a coincidence that your brain managed to produce something relevant to what I'm about to say."

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?!" the same jock exclaimed before quietly muttering "I'm gonna kick his lame ass later."

Rogue had only just heard it, so she was rather surprised when Fury responded with "You're welcome to try. It would be most entertaining, for a few minutes at least. No, I believe the only people in this room who even have a chance at taking me down are the very people I am here to work with. Before any of you try to make a pathetic excuse for smartass comment, yes, I'm talking about mutants. We're all here to get an education, excepting those waiting until you're old enough to drop out, or someone gives you a scholarship to some half-assed college because you have a talent for ramming your head into other peoples' spleens, so I expect everyone to give everyone else a fair go. And that means **everyone**, mutants and others a like. If you decide it's fun to pick on a mutant, be warned that I _will_ stand for them to defend themselves by any means necessary. If any mutants feel like beating on someone without such weighted gifts, be aware that there are many mutants around who, like myself, will not stand for _that_, and one of them just so happens to be more powerful than the rest of you combined."

"Way to go, sis'," whispered Kurt, punching Rogue lightly in the shoulder.

"Do I make myself perfectly clear?"

The white-striped river rat couldn't hold it in any longer. She stood up straight and ripped off a perfect salute, yelling "Sir, yes, sir!" before she burst out laughing. It didn't surprise her at all when the only other person who laughed was the Colonel himself.

Continuing the joke slightly, Fury yelled "Dismissed!" and sauntered to the back of the gym. It took everyone a little while to realise that this meant they could go.

Rogue, figuring that as the oldest X-Man there she had the responsibility, grabbed Kurt, the most senior by experience, by the wrist and marched pointedly down to Fury.

"So what's the real deal?" she asked the war vet, who had in this time taken out another cigar and was blissfully sucking on it while staring out into space.

Before answering her, he took out a military-issue lighter and lit the tube, took a drag and exhaled, carefully avoiding getting any smoke in her face. "I'm not supposed to tell you this, but from experience and how Logan talks about you, I know you're not going to take any of the Shield 'this is classified' shit, so I'll tell you this honestly: We don't know yet. We only have a few scraps of information about some being calling himself Azazel and something about him 'coming to meet with his son.'"

"If he has a son already, ve are _totally_ screwed!" exclaimed Kurt(1).

"Clearly you know your bible study, kid. Apparently, though, this guy doesn't, because he also claims to be Lucifer, Beelzebub, and a few others. Of course, you'd probably know already that that's obvious crap."

"So, we've got a nutcase coming into town," Rogue said dismissively. "Big deal, we go up against nutcases all the time. Magneto, Apocalypse, if Pyro went out on his own he'd definitely count as one. Why didn't you just call the Professor, tell him about it, and we'd be ready for them. I presume we're talking mutant nutcase here?"

Fury dragged on his cigar again, and then stared up at the ceiling like an autistic kid. Not moving his head, he replied "I hope that's all, private Stripes, I really do." Now he looked straight at Rogue. "Charles knows I'm here, and had some hand in placing me as principal at this school. Shield wants a personal hand in this because we really can't afford to have an all-out mutant war, and this guy seems to have quite a following from what we can tell. We're hoping to be able to identify his kid and then do _something_, and this was considered as the most likely place he'd turn up. If we can, Charles has agreed to place him in the care of the X-Men, and we'll get you somewhere that we can give you a tacit advantage over him. With any luck you'll just be fighting a nutcase mutant, as you put it, but we're keeping an open mind about the possibility of this being the real thing, because it's dismissing that kind of crap that has brought organisations like us down before. Too much crazy shit goes on these day to dismiss anything, and you of all people should know that. Like I said, we really don't know."

"What if he _does_ turn out to be what he claims?" asked Rogue, making a mental note to ask her brother about Azazel when she had the chance.

"Like the kid said, if it turns out to be the real deal, and his son is around, 've are _totally_ screwed.' Apocalypse would not just be the name your whipping bitch gave himself." Fury grinned. "Now get to class, Stripes, or I'll give you all detention. And do something about Fuzzy's head…."

As Fury walked away, Kurt asked "vhat about my head?"

Kitty, who with Dani had not been standing far away, provided an answer as the four of them began to walk down the corridor. "You, like, totally look like you've grown horns, Kurt."

"Vhat?!" yelled Kurt, before running into the nearest restroom.

"Maybe that wasn't the best thing to say, Kitty," chided Dani just before they heard a scream, a soft 'bamf,' and saw the door of the restroom sucked in a little.

Opening the door, the three of them peered in. "Kurt?" asked Kitty carefully. There was nothing there but the lingering smell of sulphur.

'At least that's better than the usual smell,' Rogue thought as they stepped away and breathed the relatively fresh if still disgusting smell of the hallway. She grabbed Kitty's arm. "Can you find your way to class, Dani?" she asked.

"Sure, why?"

Rogue removed her jacket and handed it to Kitty. "We're going on an excursion, and I've only got room for one passenger," she said as she retrieved a red lace top of the same variety as her usual green one and pulled it on over the top of her tee-shirt.

Kitty mouthed some obscenities she'd never say out loud as Rogue dragged her away.

"Where are they going?" asked a curious voice behind Dani.

"I think they're going home so they can comfort Kurt," she replied, turning to face Amanda. "He's becoming horny."

"What?!" the German's girlfriend screamed as Dani realised the other way what she'd just said could be taken.

"I mean, he's growing horns. On his head."

"Oh," said Amanda, settling down a bit. "Cute."

"I don't think Kurt thinks so…."

Not far away, a dark figure slumped against a wall and slid down it, going blue in the process. "Damn," sighed Mystique. "Not _him_."

* * *

Kurt perched on the railing of the cliff-top gazebo, completely alone. That was more or less how he wanted to be. Less the weird bumps on his forehead, the tail, and the blue fur might have helped his mood. He was also starting to feel a strange itching on his shoulder blades, and bumps had become evident there. It seemed to detract from the itching if he wore nothing on his back, so he was without shirt, too.

As he gazed out across the water, he heard the familiar sound of what he presumed was Logan coming home despite not having heard him leave, on the basis that the only other motorcycle that lived at the Institute should have been at the high school instead at the time. As the whine of the engine turned into a growl, however, Kurt turned to face the noise to see that this in fact wasn't the case as Rogue drove Gambit's bike almost right up to the stone structure.

Jumping off, Kitty removed Rogue's helmet and handed it back to her, but rather than put it on the southerner just took off again, steering the bike one-handed to the garage. Kurt turned his attention back to the sea.

"Hey, fuzzy," said Kitty jovially as she leaned against a supporting pillar. "Rogue's just going to give Professor X the low-down on what Fury told you or whatever, and I'm supposed to be keeping you company."

"I don't vant company," Kurt protested. "Just leave me alone."

"Hey, could you at least, like, let me like apologise? I–"

"You don't need to apologise for anything!" Kurt yelled, and turned to face her. With the image inducer turned off, the growth on his face was quite clear to see, and no longer blood red, but a polished ivory. "You vere right! Zey _are_ horns! Big, obtrusive, demonic horns!" He turned away again.

Kitty unzipped the jacket she was wearing and then turned so she was leaning against the same railing that Kurt was crouching on, also gazing out to sea. "I think they're cute," she said.

"Hah!" Kurt shook his head, and then leapt off the railing, porting a few feet from the edge. He emerged just above the water a way out from the cliff, continuing to dive under, and he didn't come up for a full minute.

"No, really," Kitty said to herself, "they really do make you look somehow even _cuter_ than you did before."

"Prof's out," said a voice behind Kitty, "I left him a note. Kurt didn't want to listen, I take it?"

Kitty turned to Rogue. "No, he did the whole four foot dive for a hundred foot drop thing," she replied, "Can we, like, go back to school now? I have a test after lunch."

"And you want to go and, like, sit it? Whatever. Just go get your own jacket."

* * *

Footnotes

(1) Yes, I know, ironic, isn't it?

Author's Notes

Um, if you don't know who Azazel is in terms of X-Men, I'm not going to spoil it. In terms of Judaism (see: as far as Kurt is aware), Azazel is the chief of the Se'irem (quite literally, the 'Hairy Demons'), the one to whom the 'scapegoat' is sent (this is where the term comes from, in fact. It's an actual goat that is taken into the wilderness and set free on the Jewish Day of Atonement), and also is the embodiment of hell itself, all because he taught the world sin. If some of the sources I have come across are correct, he is also the dragon from "Revelation to John" (you know, the bit everyone remembers, with that number, that is actually really, really, insignificant, or at least compared to the rest of it).

Evidently I still didn't get around to the Rogue's urges thing, because the whole high school bit took longer than I was expecting when I inserted it in my head. I **promise** they will be in the next chapter, in fact now I may as well dedicate a whole chapter to them. Then this will _really_ seem to be following Rogue's perspective more than Kurt's. Something I want to avoid as much as possible, but worry not for there shall be a point where I _have_ to write it from Kurt's point of view.

Answers to reviewers' Questions:

I think they should mostly be answered by this chapter, and anything else I say about them shall wipe out any sense of foreboding and just give the plot away.


	5. Hunt

Rogue tossed the jacket away and crashed onto her bed, staring at the blank ceiling in the darkness. Rarely did she get the chance to just relax these days, what with all the … _'fuss and everything. Damn, I see her once, for about 5 minutes only, and she's already rubbing off on me again, even though I know she never existed._' The girl with a white fringe closed her eyes.

"It's hard, isn't it?" asked that same voice behind her, and now it felt like her head was resting in someone's lap. The pseudo-goth opened her eyes to see a very real looking Risty looking concernedly back down at her, and as the girl began to stroke Rogue's own face, she morphed into Mystique.

"**Danielle!** Quit playing with my head!" If it hadn't been for the fairly major detail of skin contact with no absorption, Rogue would have been convinced. As it was, she breathed a sigh of relief when the psionic image disappeared. The teenager directed her eyes to the door that was now open, even though she _always_ closed it behind her.

"I just want to know what's up," Dani said apologetically.

"Did y'ever think of askin' first?" hissed Rogue if she sat up and glared at the other girl. "If I _ever_ catch you in my head again," she started, and then pulled off a glove and held up her bare hand as to demonstrate. "Ah'm betting that Ah can use it a lot more effectively than you evah have, and your worst fears will chase and corner yeh until you'ah sittin' catatonic with those pigtails o'yours between yo'ah legs. Ah have enough to deal with, 'out y'all bringing up Mystique in front of meh. Understand?"

Dani looked dejectedly at the floor. "I'm sorry. I just, I knew that if I asked, you were just going to tell me to go away–"

"Maybe you shoulda' taken that knowledge as an indication that you shouldn't be tryin' to find out then, d'yathink?"

"Is there any way I can make it up to you?" the Cheyenne asked.

Rogue sighed. "Look, just don't tell anyone about the Mystique/Risty thing, okay? There's a few people who know, but it's best if it don't get around. An' I look forward to instructin' you in the Danger Room," she added, grinning briefly. "Now I'd appreciate it if you'd clear off and let me mull things over."

Dani felt like she'd been dismissed rather than answered in any way, and her sullen look as she turned from closing the door showed it. "I'm so useless…." she said.

Kitty glomped her from behind "No, you're not," she said, "Rogue just, like, needs a mental punching bag every now and then. Don't let her get to you."

"No, Kitty," replied Dani in a sad tone, "I gave her a pretty good reason to chew me out. I just wish I could do something for her…."

"Well, the only thing I know of that Rogue wants – and she really needs it – she can't have. Until then, all any of us can do, I think, is try to convince her that she doesn't have the only shoulder to cry on." Kitty sighed thoughtfully – something she rarely did. "That girl. She thinks she takes too much, and all she ever does is give. It's no wonder she's always angry at herself."

Back in Rogue's room, the breeze coming coming in through the open window soothed the southerner's senses. For a moment she was lost in the bliss of nothingness that concentrating on the feeling brought, thinking that nothing could make it better than this. '_No, there is one thing,_' she reminded herself, cursing her mind as she did so, '_If only I could control, maybe… No, the only person I've ever felt anything like that for was well and truly taken before we even met._' Just another reason she had to learn to be happy with the images she conjured in her mind.

Now the wind carried voices that grabbed her attention. Pulling on her jacket, Rogue walked out onto the balcony, and breathed in the peaceful night before looking for the voice's source.

"_Vater unser im Himmel, …_" Rogue looked over to where her brother was perched on the railing of a balcony not far away from where she was. '_No, I hear him praying every day. Alright, so he's been over Pater Noster more times than usual tonight, but that wouldn't have caught my attention._' She didn't notice the growth protruding from his back, his indigo fur making it hard to see in the dark.

Tuning out Kurt's droning voice, she picked up on a playful conversation from the next room over. Nothing unusual there, just Kitty and Dani doing that best friends thing. Then she saw the two figures walking across the grounds. In a practised manoeuvre, she was down the side of the building and on her way to shadowing them.

"Dat a landing almost worthy of a LeBeau," said a relaxed voice behind her, "Maybe it do for a Boudreaux."

Rogue spun around to face the Cajun thief leaning against a pillar. "Don't you dare compare me to _her_!" she snarled.

"You mean Bella Donna? Gambit wouldn't dare." He held up his hands, the ash from a dying cigarette flicked to the ground. He charged the butt and threw it away. "If chere be wondering what Wolverine and Beast are doing, Logan said something about stress relief after I beat his Danger Room test easy. I'm intrigued too, but not so much that I want to follow more than relax."

"Logan and Hank, hey?" Rogue looked back to where the two were now standing. The Canadian seemed to be tracking something, or else Beast was moving around real close to the ground. As they began to move again, so did Rogue, following after.

"You're welcome, chere," said Gambit to the air as he pulled out another cigarette. He brushed a finger over the end of it, drawing a long breath – a risky trick, as a little carelessness would blow the cylinder up in his face. "You make yourself sweeter every day."

"Put that thing out, LeBeau." Scott didn't tend to approach Logan about the issue of smoking, which he rarely did around the mansion these days anyway, but decided that Gambit was less likely to cut him if reprimanded.

"What can I do for Cyclops?" asked Remy, tossing the cigarette over his shoulder. I exploded right next to Scott's foot.

When the boy looked up, Gambit was facing him. "'Cyclops' isn't particularly bothered – he accepts Gambit as part of the team for now. I want to know what Remy LeBeau is doing here, and what it has to do with Rogue."

"You shouldn't try to keep them separate," Remy observed, avoiding the question. "A leader suffering from personality disorders can get his team killed, and his friends annoyed. Don't you picture me as a schizotype, either."

"She's not a trophy you can win and then discard," continued Scott, "If you hurt her, I'll make an exception to my no killing policy."

"You need to relax, and I think you have to stand in line behind Logan for dat." Remy sighed, holding up his hand to indicate that he was going to continue. "True, Remy comes to X-Men partly because of Chérie, but what I said is true. I need a new beginning, and I think this be the best place to find one. And Rogue, she's not just any trifle, she's de prize catch. The unattainable trophy, de unicorn to tame."

"I still can't stand for you treating her as a possession to be won. So, you're married to this Bella Donna girl, was she your 'prize catch,' too? And you just discarded her like a used tissue?"

"You misunderstand, mon ami. In de world of de Acadian thief, he will come across a prize so great it eats at him. He knows he cannot have it, and this only make him want it more. He go after it with everything he have, and forgets everything else. It possesses him, and he cannot rest without it. If he attains dis unattainable trophy, as a thief his life is complete, there is nothing more for him to do. For me, that prize is yonder belle, and as such her possession make me want not just because of this, but for love. Bella Donna, she was nothing like that. Just an arranged marriage to bring two guilds together, end a war – it was never going to work. Chere Rogue, she will make or break Remy, and it be her choice; I hope she make the right one for her own sake, whatever it be – if I were to hurt Chérie like dat, death would be too merciful for Remy though he couldn't live with himself, but whatever makes her happy I will accept."

"I don't know whether that's touching or just wrong," replied Scott after a while, "but know that I'll be watching your every move, Cajun," and he walked back into the manor.

"Does not worry me, one eye," sighed Remy before retrieving a new cigarette and turning back to the night.

* * *

The forest near the Institute was almost dead quiet. Trapped on a ledge, the deer could do little more than stare at its hunters. In turn, Wolverine and Beast did little more than watch it.

"Now that we've trapped it, do we go in for the kill?" asked Hank, new to this form of controlling the beast inside.

"Sometimes, yeah, but today we don't have a way to get at her without putting her in pain. I can't jump that far, and to put it bluntly, you don't have the claws to kill her instantly. At this point I normally just go to wherever counts as home."

Only when they turned did they see the other figure, running fast towards them as though she was charging into a battle with outcome that decided her fate. Even before the two had stopped before their trapped quarry, Rogue's mind was being taken over by the thrill of the chase she was shadowing, and as it drew to a close, memories from the back of her mind brought to surface a created psyche that took control of her. '_Chase. Hunt. Kill._' She cleared the gap easily, jumping as Beast would, and when she landed it was apparently fists first on the deer's neck.

"Rogue?" whispered Logan, trying to catch her eye.

The Mississippi girl looked up at him from her kill, and he wasn't overly surprised to see in her eyes not their usual pallid, almost grey, green, but a burning jade. The expression on her face was at the same time of excitement and like a wild animal caught in the headlights. She looked down at the bloodied claws sticking out of her hands. Not her blood. Despite the leather gloves now missing a large part of their overside, and hanging limp from her fingers and wrists, her skin had healed instantly around the polished ivory that she had just plunged into a living thing's neck, killing it instantly. She stared at her victim, and then back up at Logan and Hank.

'Oh my god,' she mouthed soundlessly, then jumped back over the gap and ran. Hank started after her, but Logan stopped him with a hand on the shoulder.

"She'll work over it soon enough for herself, and find her own way back home," he said. "There's nothing we can do, and knowing Rogue it'll all be fine, or as fine as it can be with her. Just get the deer, so we're not wasting it, will you?"

Hank leapt the gap and retrieved the animal, commenting as they strolled back through the forest, "So we have venison on the menu for the next week?"

* * *

Ugh, 5am – so again, not horribly well proofread.

Thanks for all the reviews, people! Your input is appreciated greatly.  
One thing, in response to Ashar's comment: She doesn't exactly have the others' powers at her command as such at this stage; the idea is that strong emotion is bringing them to the surface. I am given to understand that this is in keeping with both classic X-Men and Evo (specifically the episodes "Self Possessed" and "Dark Horizon").


	6. Nightshade

Lounging around in the foyer, which he found, oddly enough, was the quietest place inside the mansion – at least of those above-ground rooms that weren't lined with glaring fluorescent lighting – Remy shuffled his cards. He'd dragged a table close to the couch and started to lay out a game of solitaire when he caught Rogue walking pointedly towards him. '_Odd,_' he thought, '_I'm sure I would have heard the door._'

He realised that something was severely out of place when she just moved on top of him and leaned in, kissing him passionately. But, as he didn't seem to be being absorbed this time, and she wasn't letting up, he just went with it and kissed back.

It was thus that he was rather panicked when she went entirely limp in his embrace, as though _he_ had put _her_ in a coma. He moved her aside to hold her to his chest instead, and only then did he see the blood, and the knife sticking out of the small of her back.

"Nice looking girl you _had_ there," said Bella Donna, glaring at him. "What, you thought I'd never come for you?"

Not far away, Dani cringed slightly. "See, I told you I hadn't got the hang of this yet," she hissed.

"Just stop it," was Kitty's reply. They'd found what she was looking for anyway — some indication that Gambit really did have genuine feelings for Rogue. They just hadn't expected her death to be his worst nightmare.

"He's too caught up in the illusion," replied Dani, "I can't stop it now."

A high-speed Rogue, the real Rogue, running in from the rain, solved that dilemma. Not even stopping to open the door but running straight through it and smashing the glass, she also turned the psionic image of Bella into a wisp of smoke as she ran through it. The image of her deceased self faded accordingly as Remy passed out.

"Rogue?!" yelled Kitty worriedly, and she followed the clawed southerner up the corridor, Dani close behind.

Scott, who had been watching the proceedings from a dark corner, walked up to the couch that LeBeau was occupying and cleaned up the mess of cards. "Well, that was certainly interesting," he said.

He turned to the sound of the security system reopening the metal shutter that the breaking glass had caused to clamp down. Logan walked in and immediately stopped. The smell of fear was strong, and abated his senses. "What happened to him?" he asked, indicating Gambit.

"Danielle," replied Scott.

"And here was me, believing Gumbo's claims that he was normally the one to sweep the other off their feet," Logan joked. "So, what happened?"

"Some girl killed Rogue on his lap. I'm guessing it was Bella Donna."

"Well, shit, eh? I guess he really cares for her." The Canadian sniffed the air, working around the smell of LeBeau's fear. "Half-pint was in here, too…. Did they go after Rogue?"

"Yeah," replied Scott distantly. "Any idea what's up with her?"

"First kill," said Logan, smiling as he noted Scott's alarm at the word. "A deer. It was clean, she cut right through its spinal cord _and_ jugular."

Scott relaxed at the announcement that she hadn't killed a human, and whistled through his teeth. "What with?" he asked.

Logan brandished a set of claws. "Don't know how, but she's controlling powers past. She absorbed Jean last night without touching her, too."

"That explains a lot," Summers conceded. "Has the Professor got any theories on how?"

"Charles doesn't know yet," replied Logan, "Or at least, no one's told him yet — you and I both know that despite what he says, that doesn't count for much. Hank thinks it's just normal growth; everyone's powers go crazy for a bit. Then they get them under control again."

"Yeah, but Rogue's powers have never _been_ under control," said Scott. "What if she can't stop absorbing everyone around her?"

* * *

'_What is happening to me?_' Rogue, sitting on her bed, stared at the claws that now lived on the back of her hand, still slightly bloody despite the rain. '_How can this be happening?_'

"Rogue?" Kitty asked from outside the door, "are you okay?"

"Ah'm fahne. Go away!" Probably the best indication that she wasn't was that she'd said that, and the returning accent didn't help.

Kitty didn't need to try the door to know it was locked. She looked at Dani. "Going in?"

"I'd better sit this one out," replied the Cheyenne. Kitty phased though the door.

"C'mon, Rogue, like, what's up?" The extraneous vocabulary indicated that Kitty was either nervous or joking, or she actually wanted the answer as a simile.

Rogue considered the latter two options probably weren't it. "What part of 'Ah'm fahne, go away' don't you understand?" she asked, standing and shoving the claws to about an inch from Kitty's face, "Especially the 'go away' part?"

"That would be the part where you say it, but don't mean it," replied Kitty, moving Rogue's hand aside. "Now, unless I can expect to find Wolverine dead in a gutter somewhere or something like that, I want an explanation."

Rogue looked into Kitty's eyes, her own narrowing. "I just killed a deer," she said carefully, sitting back down on the end of her bed.

The other girl's face betrayed the exact emotion that Rogue was looking for, but she pushed past it bravely. "But what's with the claws?" she asked. "Did you, like, absorb Logan to do it?"

"Not that I remember." Rogue sighed, and sheathed the claws. Kitty noticed that on the southerner, who had somewhat leaner muscles than Logan, it was possible to see the bone slide all the way back over her wrists and settle in her forearms.

"Does that hurt?" Kitty asked, and now she saw that her friend was still bleeding slightly at the base of her fingers. She sat down on the bed next to her.

Rogue fought back the temptation to unsheathe the claws again and plunge them into Kitty's arm, asking the same question back. Instead, she threw herself down on the bed, and answered "Like you wouldn't believe."

"I always thought they must, like, hurt Mr. Logan where they break his skin, but it's not just there, is it?" the Illinois native asked, shifting around so that she could see Rogue.

The southerner looked up at Kitty like she was crazy – and in a way, it was justified, as _no one_ else on the surface of the planet would have been idly braiding the white fringe of the southerner's hair. "It rips the muscles all the way up y' forearms. O' course it hurts more'n just that!"

"So, what's going on behind the scenes?" asked Kitty. "With Rogue, not those bits of other people left behind."

"They're acting up, so I'm just a little confused," replied Rogue. "Nothing out of the normal."

"Yeah, right," Kitty protested, finishing off the braid. "Most people don't, like, just suddenly grow claws."

Rogue sat up straight and glared at her. "Yeah, Ah'm not most people, am I?! Why am Ah even talking to you? Get out!"

Kitty just sat there with a determined expression on her face. "Not until you tell me what's going on."

"Ah ain't yeh roommate enahmore! Ah mean it, **Get out**, before Ah **throw** yeh out!"

When Kitty continued to sit there, shaking her head, Rogue made good on her ultimatum. Standing up herself, she picked up the atomic displacer by the shoulders and hips, and threw her through the door. Surprised by the southerner's strength (although it should have made sense, she decided – after all, Rogue didn't have a readily usable physical power unless she was within arm's reach of someone else, so she needed another edge in a fight), Kitty only just phased in time.

"Well, that went well," Dani commented from where she was leaning against the wall.

"Hmph," was the only reply Kitty made.

Rogue looked down at the muscles rippling on her arms as the pain made itself known. Her body was rejecting the claws it now saw as foreign objects — and did it in the same way as Logan's might reject a stray bullet – the quickest way out possible. She only just snapped her head out of the way to as the bones tore through the flesh on her arms, ripping apart the skin on the way through.

Kitty was back in the room, _with_ Dani, before Rogue had finished screaming. The southerner was on the floor, and they could clearly see the gashes on her arms.

"Rogue?" Kitty queried. "Rogue?!"

The first response was a groan, and then a very deliberated "Ouch."

"We need to get her down to the infirmary," Dani said to Kitty, lifting Rogue's head onto her lap.

"Just wait a sec," the southerner interrupted, and grunted in concentration. Slowly, the wounds closed over. "Lucky Ah lost the claws first," she said in a jovial but sardonic tone. Then her eyes opened wide in horror, and she jumped on the Cheyenne, tackling her and rolling her across the floor.

When Dani looked back, she saw a foot long and very bloody claw embedded point first in the floor where she'd been kneeling, vibrating. Kitty jumped out of the way as the other five fell from the ceiling, escaping one so narrowly that if she'd been anyone else, her leg would have been skewered.

"And that," said Rogue, "ends the practical demonstration of just one reason why you should never enter my room without checking first."

* * *

Sorry about the long pause between updates. It was… the long weekend y'know, and I… had better things to do with my time. Like, yeah. Um, you know, like, reading other people's stories and failing to review them, that kind of thing. So, you're probably sick of hearing it from Rogue's point of view by now. Tough titties.

OK, so the point of that whole chapter could have been summed up in two lines of dialogue (See paras. XV and XXII). It's tempting to skip straight to the action and the kissy bits, but I think this place is owed some stories that don't do that.

I thought it was pretty clear that Kitty and Rogue had separate rooms now, shown in the episode "Ghost of a Chance" if nothing else. So Rogue has her own room, and Kitty is sharing with Dani or something, in case you hadn't got that yet. Just because I've noticed that some people seem to be confused into writing them as roomies post-"Ascension", and that might have adversely affected your brain as they probably haven't been sharing a room at least since "Day of Reckoning."

Thanks for all the reviews, peeps! :D Please send more! :D


	7. Watch out for crazy Germans

'_Okay, so you've woken everyone up with that scream, ja? What do now, Fuzzy?_' Kurt asked himself. It had happened when Kurt looked in the mirror, and saw the leathery indigo wings that now haloed him. '_Maybe they'll think it's just Kitty realising what we had for dinner last night – just about everyone knows that Rogue killed that deer, and even though Kitty didn't eat it–_'

"What's up, Kurt?" Of course, Kitty herself wouldn't be convinced of that.

"Nothing," replied the German in a voice that strained to be bright.

"Yeah, right," said Kitty, phasing through the door. "everyone from like, here to California heard you screaming. What's the– Whoa!"

"I'm hideous, aren't I?" asked Kurt as he turned sadly to face her.

Kitty's jaw was still agape, and as she squared up what she saw, she held it sideways. "That, is like, _so_ cute!"

"Huh?" Kurt barely had time to look up before the girl was nearly on top of him, trying to grab on to his new appendages. "Hey! Stop it!" he yelled as he kept pulling them out of the way.

"C'mon, I just wanna, like, find out what they feel like," protested the brown-haired girl as she kept on chasing the elusive wings, before she finally pinned Kurt down on his bed. "Gotcha!" She reached down and touched one of the membranes on his left wing, brushing her hand over the furry surface. "Wow, they're like, so soft…."

"You know what else is, Katzchen?" asked Kurt, grinning evilly. He snaked his tail around Kitty's body and stroked her face with the tip.

"Hey!" she yelled, and then slapped him across the face, phasing out of the demon's grasp and jumping away. "That was–"

"Exactly what you were doing to him?" Rogue stood in the door way, leaning against the frame. "You know, if you're going to go around stroking people you should expect them to stroke back."

"Yeah," added Kurt, sitting up, "I vas just reciprocating zer touchy-feely."

"Oh," said Kitty, looking at her feet. "Well, at least I wasn't, like being sensual about it," she complained.

"What do you mean, Kitty?" asked Kurt innocently.

"Right, like ya don't know she has a point there, Elf," his sister retorted, turning away. "C'mon, you two, or you're gonna miss breakfast. By the way, the wings suit. _Tres grotesque_."

"Gee, thanks," Kurt grumbled before teleporting away.

"_I_ like them," said Kitty, pouting as she phased out through the floor.

The southerner snorted as she closed the door behind her. "Well, _duh_."

* * *

That day, Kurt decided that his image inducer was pretty much useless. The least you needed to conceal a pair of 6 foot wings was apparently a large trench coat, and being furry was bad enough in the heat. That and Kurt felt that fuzzy and blue was a better look than the Hunchback of the Xavier Institute, so all things considered it was easiest to just leave it on the dresser.

Discovering that the easiest way to get Kurt to school was to fly him there, Logan advised Rogue to trail him, on Remy's bike that she still had the keys to (and was considering holding on to on a permanent basis, just to spite his insistence that "Chere will give dem back when she feel like it"). The southerner did so until he started experimenting with teleporting ahead, whereupon she made the decision to instead race him. The motorcycle's superior speed didn't count for much, as Rogue didn't have the luxury of suddenly being about a mile further on, and Rogue arrived with screaming engine to find Kurt collapsed on the front lawn, being approached by none other than Risty Wilde.

Rogue didn't bother to park the motorcycle cleanly, she just rode it in between the two, slowing down enough to let it slide out from under her as she stepped off into an aggresive stance. "Stay away from him," she snarled.

Most people would have been intimidated by the southerner staring them down; She was by no means a small girl, and had a practised glare that had been 'inherited' from the likes of Wolverine, Magneto, the Scarlet Witch, and even Mystique herself. Risty Wilde was not most people, however, and had an illusion to keep up. "Now, Rogue, I'd like to think we're friends here after all we've been through _at school_ together. Isn't it best if we try and keep ourselves together, darling, if nothing else so we can actually stop this nutter from doing some _real_ damage?"

"What are you talking about?" Kurt was now standing, his wings not exactly stretched out, but neither had he tucked them into his body.

This caused Mystique to do a double take, but she held her composure enough that it was still Risty Wilde who spoke. "I heard you talking to Fury. This Azazel freak, he's not one to be trifled with."

"If you're so concerned, _mother_," Rogue started, "why don't you arrange a meeting with the Prof and Fury, and– Wait, this is personal, isn't it?"

Risty looked genuinely shocked. Then she realised how pointless that was, and let the faux expression fade, her eyes flicking briefly to Kurt and back. "Yes, Rogue, it is, but–"

"I don't wanna hear it!" screamed the southerner. "It's always about _you_, isn't it? You, you, you, you, you–"

"W– What's going on here?" Amanda, walking up to greet Kurt, was slightly confused by Rogue's outburst at her friend. Especially seeing as how Risty, from her point of view, had never done anything but give to the girl from Mississippi.

"Rogue's just a leetle… on edge right now, meine liebe," explained Kurt. "You know, after the whole Apocalypse thing. We should go and let these two sort this out between themselves."

"Are you sure that's wise?" asked Amanda nervously as they walked away.

"Ja, meine schwester can look after herself," the elf replied distantly, looking back over his shoulder. Rogue had Risty pinned to the ground.

"She's not really who I was worried about," muttered Amanda.

Back on the lawn, Mystique made one last attempt to get through to her adopted daughter. Morphing her eyes to their natural colour, she pleaded "It's _family_. I just don't want Kurt to be harmed," in her own voice.

This took Rogue by surprise to say the least. "What?!" she exclaimed, standing up.

* * *

Kurt's eyes were not on his food, but rather he gazed over the top of his sundae at the girl opposite him, who was slowly devouring her own, aware of his gaze. He and Amanda had dropped into the ice-cream parlour after school (or rather into the alley next to it, and then they'd walked in. Kurt didn't tend to port in right in front of people he didn't know), as was their almost daily ritual. Normally, however, Kurt was nothing like this self conscious, though he certainly had his reasons today. Two of them were sticking out of his forehead, and the other two, that were harder to hide, attached to his back.

It was thus that he wasn't surprised when someone yelled out "Demon!" but when Amanda acknowledged the existence of the boy running into the store with a look of recognition.

"Stefan?" Kurt queried, also recognising the boy.

"Get away from my sister, demon," he commanded. Stefan was armed with a knife and slowly advancing on Kurt.

"Are you for real, Stefan?" asked Kurt. "Amanda is your sister?!"

Amanda hung her head, and then looked up at the demonic mutant. "Kurt…."

Her eyes told him everything, but the momentary lapse of concentration meant that Stefan had the opportunity to lunge at him, and he pinned his fuzzy target to the table. "You're a menace. All of your kind are," he said as he lifted his knife.

Along with being the skilled acrobats he was, Kurt had the advantage of a prehensile tail, and Stefan had failed to take that into account. The boy was surprised when Kurt ripped the knife from his hand, and fumbled his own balance as the furry mutant took advantage of his surprise and flipped them, theoretically over so he was on top, holding Stefan down to the table. In effect, the two slid down, and Stefan hit the ground head first, his torso twisting. The boy's life ended with a sickening crunch. Kurt jumped off him, and crept backwards, his own face a mask of terror, looking from Stefan to Amanda and back again.

"Oh my God," sobbed Amanda, who was gaping at her dead brother. "Kurt…." She looked up at him, eyes rimming with tears.

If Kurt had bothered to look at her at that point, he would have seen concern and sympathy, but as he would not face her he just assumed she was angry at him. He turned his back, his head hung low, and teleported away, even as the sounds of Remy's motorcycle penetrated the silence that hung over the room.

Rogue saw Amanda running from the store as she stood up from locking the motorcycle to a pole, and exchanged a look with Risty, who had been riding with her — They had been hoping to be able to explain to Kurt about the situation with Azazel while stuffing him with his favourite dessert food; The idea was that Mystique and Rogue could each scrutinise what the other was saying so that they didn't tell him _too_ much. They intercepted the distraught teen, and Rogue grabbed her by the shoulders.

"What are they going to do with him?" sobbed Amanda. "What are they going to do with Kurt?"

Rogue was shoved off her by an invisible force, and the teen started off again. Risty offered her hand and pulled Rogue from the ground. They shared another look, both fearing the worst, and ran to the parlour as Mystique took on her true form.

They were met, surprisingly enough, with the lingering smell of brimstone and a shocked look on the face of the bartender and the one patron that hadn't previously been scared away by the demon walking into the store with a teenage girl roped around one arm. What they weren't expecting was what their horrified faces were looking at, the dead body lying half out of a booth, blood pooling around his head.

"Stefan?" Rogue asked no-one. It took even her a few moments to work out where it had come from.

"You know him?" asked Mystique. "Did he have something against my baby?"

If Rogue was surprised by Mystique referring to her son that way, she didn't show it. "Kurt had some memory of him, I think," replied the southerner, "and let's just say that he wasn't really enamoured by the furry blue guy." Then Rogue turned and ran out the door, determined to follow the one witness who might give an account in Kurt's favour.

"Right," said Mystique as she bore down on the customer, who was frozen to the spot. He'd just seen one demon kill a boy who'd attacked him, and was now considering the probability that this new one, who looked like a stunning, if rather blue, lady was going to kill _him_. "It was in self defence, right?" demanded the metamorph. The man nodded enthusiastically. She turned to the bartender. "Was there anyone else here? Any other demon-looking people?" This time she received a nervous shake of the head. Of course, she was being fed the answers that they thought she wanted, and she knew it.

Rogue was just standing, staring down the road when Mystique walked outside. She was trying hard to conjure up Wolverine's abilities, but it was fast proving an ineffectual attempt. It just wasn't the right emotion to appeal to Logan's psyche, in fact it was the exact one that would send him far away – confusion. She growled as anger joined it, and smacked the sign she was standing next to. It shattered, and the ground quaked as a rift was ripped across the road behind it.

She turned to Mystique. "I'm gonna go find Kurt. It might be best if y'all stay here or somethin'."

"Very well," replied her foster mother, "but if you find out that his father was here, I want to know immediately."

"I guessed that," said Rogue as she got on the bike. "I'll be in touch, so don't fret, ya hear?" And she was off.

* * *

Another short one, and a slow (pour moi) update, and I'll be damned if this ain't moving along slower than I want it to. Well, stay tuned unless you want to miss this line (it won't be in the next chapter, or the one after, or probably even the next one after that, but it's coming, I swear):  
"Stop bein' so dramatic, Mr. LeBeau, and pull it outta meh!"

Responses to Reviews, in Order of Self-Important Cockiness (_mine, not the reviewers'_):

**Flame31**: Thanks for the encouragement, though I feel that I must thwart your statement about Wolverine's claws not being part of his mutation. It's just not true, except in the X-Men movie-verse. It's not investigated in _Evolution_, and in the classic Marvel Universe, one of the major reasons for James Howlett / Logan's exile from his home was his bone claws, way back in the late 19th century, which was quite some time before Dr. Cornelius, the person who grafted Admantium onto his skeleton, was even born. He even (accidentally) killed his only childhood friend and first love with them. If you don't believe me, you can go to the Universe section on the official Marvel site – www dot marvel dot com slash universe – and check it out (you'll need Flash). But, hey, no hard feelings, right, mate? :-)

**UncannyAsianGirl**: Hmm. Maybe Dani and her grandfather decided that they'd caught up enough, and she needed help with her powers? I mean, Dani's been in a hibernate stasis, and Eagle's been, what, sitting around watching everyone go crazy around him while he waits for his granddaughter to wake up and come home? Wouldn't make for much of an exchange, methinks. Plus, it makes it ever so much more interesting if our dream casting friend is running around messing up people's heads :-)  
As for Rogue keeping the claws, I don't think she'd really have a choice, would she? Of course, whether it'd happen like that is quite another question….  
Pairings in the summary? Like some kind of sappy lovefic? Puh-lease! Like I'd wanna do something like that? And people should just assume the Romy thing unless otherwise stated if relationships are brought up with respect to them at all. And the title, well if you were to have a shot at translating it into French, you might end up with «Les Enfants Mystiques,» – maybe I shouldn't bother being even that tiniest bit subtle and just put it like that, what d'you think?  
Sorry if you don't like the 'battiness' of Kurt's wings, but that's just how it is in the zany adventures of my whacked out mind. He _is_ blue, furry, and demonic, after all.  
I look forward to votre fics when you put them up, so do it soon, oui?  
Oh, and the atrocious slang rocketh, m'dear.

**Miss Poisonous**: And here was me thinking a week was a long time between updates ;-P. Maybe I just have nothing better to do with my time? :-( I agree that tails are cool. I mean, imagine how much fun you could have with a tail? But enough gutter talk, the point is that Kurt doesn't feel very normal with a tail and all. I'm sure if he actually went through with cutting it off, he'd miss it dearly, especially when teasing Kitty cats that get too close.

T'ank you all for your kind reviews, and please send more. :D


	8. Comic Relief 1

Comic Relief

_This chapter has a few points. One, as its title says, comic relief. Two, I can't really continue writing the main story at this point without putting a bit of extra thought into something I hadn't really paid enough attention to. Three, I need to ask you lot a question._

_You can blame points two and three initially on my perfectionist streak, UncannyAsianGirl, and then a few others. As you may have observed, I glossed over a relatively major point in chapter 7. There are a couple of things I can do about this — work around and put some kind of reasoning on it, back-pedal and edit that chapter so that the connections are not made, or perhaps (and this is one possibility I'd rather avoid) say this is an alternate universe where the events in "_The Toad, the Witch, and the Wardrobe_" did not happen, and the Seftons are not the Szardos. The question is, which do you, the readers of this fic, think I should do?_

Responses to Reviews shall be placed at the bottom of the page as per usual. On to the comic relief, with characters that may or may not be in the main story…. (Just a warning, there is some language in this that may be considered swearing. Pyro is, after all, an Aussie).

* * *

St. John Allerdyce, pyromaniac extraordinaire, was bored. Very bored. When Magneto had buggered off, Sabretooth had spent all his time chasing stray animals around, Colossus had disappeared home, and Gambit had gone… somewhere. Now ol' Buckethead had come back, but was preoccupied as normal. He wasn't even assigning any dirty work to Pyro, just the overgrown kitty cat, and even then only on rare occasions. He hadn't seen Pete since, and Rems had only turned up briefly to discuss that Apocalypse bugger, gathered what stuff he had left, and pissed off again. How rude could a bloke be?

"Rude as a bloody rabbit," Pyro said to himself. Who else would he be talking to right now? "Poppin' up, and just when you've got a clear bloody shot, he buggers off again." A smile formed at the edges of the Australian's mouth. '_Yes. Rabbit._'

Walking into his sleeping quarters, he discarded the twin flamethrowers for a slightly more _portable_ flame source – his military grade lighter. Hearing rain spatter against the metal walls of Magneto's moving base, he changed out of his orange uniform into a pair of jeans and shirt. He took from a shelf a box labelled "To Johnno," and removed something that looked suspiciously like the cousin of a trench coat with a run-off flap and extra proofing¹, carefully checking for spiders before he put it on (This is an automatic action, and cannot be removed once ingrained). He added to his outfit a pair of boots that looked for some reason slightly rusty, and then completed the ensemble with a wide brimmed but modest hat with a feather in its leather band², also from the box. He looked at himself in the mirror.

"You beauty, Frank," he said under his breath.

Walking through the control room, he commented to Magneto as he went past, "Me and Harvs are just going out for some fun."

"Be back by midnight," replied the Master of Magnetism, "I have an assignment for you tomorrow." Slowly, he realised something – St. John had never mentioned a friend 'Harvs' before. Turning around, he asked, "Who–"

A six foot tall rabbit-shaped pillar of flame waved at him before following a sniggering Pyro out into the afternoon rain.

* * *

The bartender looked at the strangely dressed man suspiciously. The fact that he had been wearing a hat in a rainstorm was the least of what disturbed him. "Do you realise, sir, that your friend is on fire?"

"Wouldn't be much of a friend if he wasn't, mate." An Australian. That explained some things at least. Considering that the burning man actually looked like a rabbit, maybe the guy was an illusionist?

"So, does your friend have any ID?"

"Ha ha. Sorry, he keeps burning them, mate."

"I see. Do _you_ have any ID?"

This irritated Pyro. No-one ever asked for ID when he was with Gambit. He took out his wallet and grudgingly handed over a driver's license.

"Sorry, sir, I can't serve you," stated the man, handing the card back to Pyro. "And I'm going to have to ask you to leave."

"What's the problem, mate?" asked St. John. His tone was friendly, and he was grinning, but his eyes betrayed that he was annoyed….

Pyro grinned and took a swig of his newly acquired Vodka as the windows of the burning shop shattered behind him, and the few customers ran from the bar, screaming. The heavy rain was dealing with most of the fire, but not St. John's fire bunnies. He laughed and turned to watch them running around, devouring tables and chairs. One of them got into the space behind the bar, and while he wasn't controlling it, he had to admit that the flame resulting from the exploding liquor was quite impressive. Deciding that enough was enough for one place, he stopped the burning critters, and they ran across the street, joining together so that there was just one, six feet tall, when it reached him.

Putting an arm around the rabbit's shoulders, he asked, "Where to next, Harvs?"

"Wish _I'd_ thought of that," replied a voice behind him. "Mystique would probably have believed me when I blamed it on Pietro, too." St. John jumped as the bottle was taken from him, and looked to see Wanda taking a swig from his ever so precious Vodka.

"Crikey, Charlie," exclaimed the Australian. "Would ya warn a bloke before you take 'is nectar away from 'im?"

The red-haired girl laughed a little, and then scowled. "My name's not Charlie." She indicated the shell of the building across the road with the bottle. "Wouldn't serve you?"

"Jerk said I was too young. Can you imagine that? I'm twenty years old!"

"You _are_ too young. They won't let you drink until you're 21."

"Geez. Back home, it's eighteen. And yer name _is_ Charlie – you're a sheila."

"I know what it means. But you do _not_ call me that. Eighteen? Should be like that here."

"Bloody oath," confirmed St. John, taking the bottle from her. He turned back to feed some to Harvs, and only then saw that the rabbit had gone out. "Harvs!" he yelled. "Come back, mate. Don't worry, I've got yer." He pulled out his lighter and flicked the lid. Nothing happened. "Aw, hell, I'm out," he sobbed. "I'm sorry, mate."

Behind him, Wanda giggled. "Cheer up," she said, "you don't need that." She flicked a hand at a nearby bush and it burst into flame.

Immediately, Pyro had it under his control, and Harvs was resurrected. He turned back and hugged Wanda, grinning. "Bloody hell, sheila," he said, "that was friggin' excellent. You an' me…"

Wanda pushed the Australian away. "Father would kill you," she said, taking the bottle from his hands again.

"Harvs'll protect me," he replied as the fiery rabbit put an arm around his shoulder – a feat that _would_ be physically impossible if he was limited by things such as shoulder blades.

"Obviously," Wanda scoffed. "Do the little ones again, and then we can set them loose in the Brotherhood house."

Pyro smirked and did as requested. "Lead on, MacDuff," he said, grinning.

* * *

I'll leave it to your imagination (for now) to decide whether the Brotherhood house survives or not.

Footnotes:  
¹ The Driza-Bone (Like 'dry as a bone,' but said by an Australian). The great Australian weather resistant coat. It's fireproof.  
² The infamous Akubra. The great Australian weather resistant hat. It's fireproof.  
You really never appreciate fireproof clothing until it's raining burning embers.  
Frank is a fellow journalist friend of Pyro's that I made up purely for the purpose of sending our favourite pyromaniac all that stuff he's missing from back home.  
Harvs is based partially on Harvey the 6′1½″ white rabbit, a pooka and the invisible friend of Elwood P. Dowd. Harvey is the intellectual property of Mary Coyle Chase.  
I don't translate the French, and I don't translate the German. Don't expect me to provide a glossary of Australian lingo, they _are_ available on the web.

Response to Reviews:

**UncannyAsianGirl**: 8·0 (That's my brain going into overload). No really, you pulled me up on extracontinuity _with evidence_? That's one of my tricks! (You only get away with this because I already used my super-power personal question attack this week – even the same question as I would have used here). I don't believe I missed that! Now I have to carefully scrutinise that episode, and it's one of the ones I _don't_ have loitering on disk (However if I have the CN-Au schedule worked out, it's some time next month). Sooo, uhm, if Margali's a sorceress and Amanda's a sorceress maybe they're both in America being a big family of sorcery and she just doesn't want Amanda near Kurt for some obscure reason, or maybe I should just rearrange part of the plot and rewrite that chapter? But that means changing a fair amount of it, and who wrote that inconsistency in, anyway? Grrr. Now I'm confused too. You even caused my right pinky to twitch uncontrollably — do you have any idea how hard that makes it to get Enter and Shift the right way around on this keyboard? :  
Maybe they were way early for school and no-one else was there yet? And maybe Fury for his part knew the basics of what was going on (and would _you_ interrupt a fight that Rogue was involved in)? Maybe I just felt those details were so irrelevant I didn't even think to take them into account? You'll have to ask my melancholic psyche when it comes back from vacation.  
As for the whole Kurt/Amanda & Kitty/Lance thing, well you know how naïve Kitty is (no really, she just saw something soft and furry and wanted to know first hand that it was) and how much Kurt loves to tease…. Who said it means anything (Although I _really_ don't get the Kitty/Lane thing).  
People running away screaming? Let's just assume that Amanda is strange, the ice-cream parlour was full before they arrived, and the 'tender wasn't about to run away screaming from his best customer? And Kurt at least has clothes on (well, I envisaged him so, but if you're a sick puppy then so be it), so not _all_ his glory….  
Do you always write long reviews like that, by the way? Not that I'm complaining….

**MissPoisonous**: The whole Stefan thing… Long story short, same Amanda, but in the Marvel 'verse Amanda Sefton is an alias and she is Jimaine Szardos, Kurt's foster sister – _and_ his love interest (twice). Apparently this is not the case in the Evoverse, maybe because they felt that Kurt needed a girlfriend more than he needed another adoptive sister and it would be too weird (Marvel have no problem with weird, but WB probably do).  
IIRC, Mystique has never had so much as an inkling desire to kill Rogue (except, once again, in the X-Men Movieverse), and I'm pretty sure that Rogue _was_ planning on killing Mystique last chapter until the whole Kurt thing came up.

**Gryphon124**: The idea is to have something that Kurt is completely incapable of shrugging off, and has trouble handling ;·P.

Thanks for the reviews, people. Rest assured that this brief interlude will not last long — just long enough for me to work out what the heck I'm going to do with the mess that is Kurt's maybe-not-family background. If you want another serious update soon, help me and review! ;·D


	9. Talking about it

As it turned out, Kurt was in the first place his sister looked. Well, on it, anyway, despite the rain – much as it was a common place of solace for the all the X-Men, they had their own particular quirks on how they spent their time there; Rogue tended to sit on a ledge of rock about ten feet down the cliff in front of the gazebo, and Kurt normally perched on the railing – or if he was in a particularly sorry mood, he would actually be on top of the roof, as he was now. As for Kitty, she'd only ever seen it once, and the girl denied it, to the level that maybe she wasn't aware she was doing it, but Rogue could have sworn the brunette sat in mid-air in the middle of the structure to meditate. It was like when she'd taken the dare to dive from the high platform, and nearly chickened out – she would have done, except that with her eyes closed tight as she walked to the edge, she'd actually taken 3 steps off it before she opened them and plummeted to the water. Unfortunately, no one besides Rogue and Kurt had seen this, and everyone else didn't believe them, especially as Kitty seemed to have suppressed all memory of the event.

Rogue shook the thought out of her head. '_What a time to let your thoughts go wandering, ya mook._' she chided herself, before easily swinging herself up the side of the gazebo and onto its roof, in a movement that she'd actually _learned_ from Logan rather than absorbed straight from his psyche. It was weird, that second absorption that happened where the victim's impersonal memories, things like how to fly the X-jet, speaking foreign languages, the basics of channelling their power – although Rogue found she tended to be able to improve on that, even just after she'd absorbed them – became her very own. There had been more of those to gain from Logan than she would have thought was possible to learn in a lifetime, '_Well, I guess I could call it the "hard" way. You're doing it again!_'

"Rogue?" Kurt asked as the nothingness in her eyes subsided and she finally focused on him.

"Kurt," the southerner replied, pausing. "You wanna talk 'bout it?"

Kurt sighed and looked away. Figuring what Rogue was talking about, he knew he didn't want to, but figured he was going to have to eventually. Why not now? "It vas a mistake. I didn't mean to do it."

"'Course not. Why would a fluffy goofball like you do something like that?"

"He attacked me, you know? Yelled 'Demon' and zen jumped on me vith a knife. Und Amanda…."

"We saw her running from there. She looked kinda' distraught?"

"Well, she did see a guy get killed" Kurt looked up at his sister. "Nein…. She saw her brother killed. He referred to Amanda as his sister – and she more or less confirmed it." 

"C'mon, 'crawler, you honestly believe that a psychopath like him is going to be related to a sweet girl like Amanda?"

"You absorb everything about anyone you touch, I can jump two miles away vith barely ze blink of an eye. Anything is possible. Herr Logan has claws zat come out of his hands, and your boyfriend down zere –" he indicated the tail of a coat visible below the roof line, blowing in the breeze "– can blow things up just by touching zem. Speaking of vich, I am going somevere else before he gets zer stench of tobacco in my fur, or hears something he shouldn't."

Kurt started to move away, preparing to teleport just himself, but Rogue grabbed his shoulder. "Mystique said to avoid 'porting," she whispered.

Kurt rolled his eyes, but turned back to face her. "Why not? And since ven did you listen to anything Mystique says?"

"Ah just don't want to take any chances with this. She thinks that maybe it'll help Azazel get through to this dimension, and leave you in his. By the way, that filthy swamp rat is _not_ my boyfriend." Rogue heard a snigger from below.

"How would he do zat exactly?"

"I'm not sure. Listen, he's some kind of inter-dimensional traveller, otherwise Mystique wouldn't know anything about him. But he was trapped in another dimension several thousand years ago, and can only return to this one under certain circumstances. That could mean swapping places with someone who moves between dimensions living here." '_Not to mention that's where you got your teleporting abilities, and you'd never have been born if he wasn't._'

"Fine, Rogue," sighed Kurt dismissively. "But I hope you're not hiding anything from us." With that, he leapt off the gazebo and wandered away.

Rogue jumped down off the structure on to the grass next to it, rolling as she landed and up onto her feet, glared at the Cajun. "Just what are you doing here?" she demanded.

Remy grinned. Surprisingly enough, he wasn't smoking, but twiddling a card between his fingers. "Well, I cert'nly wasn't lying to mon frère," he replied, and then charged the card and tossed it at Rogue, who caught it in one hand. "Just standin' here, watchin' de ocean. Y'think it'll run away, chérie?"

As the Jack of Spades exploded into a puff of ash in her hand, Rogue smirked. "With you watching, I wouldn't be surprised. Ah would. An' I wasn't lying to Kurt."

Chuckling slightly, the Cajun retorted "In N'Awlins when I was watchin', y' came to me, chere.”

"Yeah, and _that_ was a mistake. I shoulda' just kept on walkin'." Rogue turned and stalked back towards the mansion.

Catching up with her, Remy placed a hand on Rogue's shoulder to stop her. "Y'know, you could've, chérie," he said. "I wouldnt've stopped y'."

Rogue paused for a moment before brushing his hand off and turning to face him. "Ah know, swamp rat. All the same, you were playin' on my emotions. Ya knew I don't like that, and what's worse, you pretended ya weren't. Ya could've at least been honest about it."

"Like y' just were wi' ton frère?"

Rogue just hung her head and walked away again. This time, Gambit didn't bother following her – he knew he'd pushed it too far. As the rain thickened, he took a deck of cards from a pocket in his coat, and removed one, apparently at random. Twirling it in his fingers for a second, he charged it. Staring into the face of the King of Hearts, he changed his mind, and rescinding the charge, dropped it on the path. He dug his heel into it, crushing it until the stonework showed through.

"Merde, Remy," he muttered under his breath, "When did y' become like dis?" He pulled out the Queen of Hearts and sighed at it. Reinserting the card into the deck, the Cajun charged the whole thing and tossed it away. He never noticed Rogue turn at the door and watch him.

* * *

Responses to Reviews:

**UncannyAsianGirl**: Let it be known that you are unbelievable. Really. Let's see, so, uhm, that was actually the one appearance of Morph in _Evolution_ where he saw Mystique unconscious and thought it was an excellent opportunity to get rid of her precious Rogue. Yeah, 'cause we all know that Morph doesn't like Rogue…. And who believes that Mystique wouldn't have been out cold for at least a month, anyway, considering how long Rogue was holding on to her?!  
Cousins in Toowoomba? Wow. So if you go to visit them you'll only be about a 130km away from somewhere that feels like home, except on the wrong coast (of the Pacific). Well, as far as I can tell, the Brisbane Gold Coast is a reflection of urban California. But then, I've never actually been to either.  
What site? FanFiction dot Net erases anything that looks by simple algorithm like a web site. Hey, it's not like I need to actually watch the episode to know that what you said is true (when you said it, I remembered), and I'll be watching it anyway.  
Of course Harvs is waterproof! Pyro's fire is, when he makes it so (I think the only real limitation is that it needs a fuel source and can't be more than about 100 feet away). Our fire seasons are more intense than yours, so as you say in America, neener-neener-neener! (Is that something to be proud of?) Isn't waterproof fire a Muppet Labs thing? Wait, no, that was flammable water….  
Any clothing dark and waterproof that is supposedly left on the back doorstep is checked for spiders. That means boots, coats, overalls, and also extends to thinks like gloves and trousers (I don't think I've check my trousers for spiders since I was 10 though, and I rarely check gloves. Excepts welding gloves. There's always a Redback in your welding gloves). Also sleeping bags when camping. I think maybe I should draw a picture of Pyro in his coat and hat, with an arm around Harvs' shoulders…. I know what colour Wanda's hair is, but saying 'red' is more effective for her character than 'black with red bits.'  
My melancholic psyche returns from vacation when it gets the impression no-one's going to be asking questions. 'Tis too your fault I construed as such, for some unexplained reason. :·D By the way, I use whichever Shift key is most comfortable for the moment, (eg. for capitalising Y, I use the left one) although I do admittedly favour the right. Yeppers, QWERTY keyboard.  
No, I meant 'Lane'. I heard in this place somewhere that Whedon was going to cross over _Superman_ into _Astonishing X-Men_ and there would be a romance between Kitty and Lois Lane. ;·D Try saying that aloud and keeping a straight face! :·P (Anyone who thinks that this is likely to be true, go make yourself eligible for the Darwin awards before you pollute the gene pool).  
Thanks for your review, and help. Your suggestion is greatly appreciated. It's also pretty damn close to what I'm probably going to do.

**Le Ragin Cajun**: That good enough for ya? :·P It's coming. Don't push it.

There was going to be a tad more to this chapter, but I was derailed by a certain someone's review pointing out that the Evoverse didn't agree with something and lost track of where I was up to. Oddly enough, this minus edits since proof reading (and a little rewriting to neutralise the Kurt-Amanda-Stefan thing) was written before the 'comic relief' chapter.


	10. Abduct, Stab, and Run

The dinner table at the Xavier Institute was quiet. Unusually so.

"Like, where _is_ Kurt?" asked Kitty.

"He's probably deliberating," Rogue replied. "Ah would be."

"What for?" the brunette asked curiously.

"**Haven't ya seen tha news?! Whaddya think he'ad be thinkin' about?!**" With that outburst out of the way, Rogue got up and stormed from the room.

"Kitty," the Professor started, "Kurt…; There was…"

"The Elf killed someone in self defence today," Logan finished for him. There wasn't really anyone else in the room who could. Just after he did so, Remy set down his knife and fork, and folded his napkin, setting it down next to his plate.

"Oh," said Kitty, distantly.

"I'm sure it was an accident, Kitty,"continued Charles. "It's not… the kind of thing Kurt would do."

"Excusez moi," said Remy, standing up. He didn't offer any explanation, just quietly left.

"What's his deal?" asked Logan. "You'd think he'd done it himself."

"Remy has his reasons, Wolverine," Piotr replied. "However, I am sworn to secrecy."

The Canadian started to stand, but then decided to trust Colossus on this one. "They better be _good_ reasons," he growled as he sat back down.

* * *

Perching on the balustrade of his balcony, Kurt sighed. The construction of his new wall aside, he felt he was in the wrong place. The X-Men weren't killers. They didn't make mistakes like that either. He hung his head, and a single teardrop slid down his cheek.

Behind him, Rogue stepped in between the woodwork of the wall's frame. She walked up to the balcony beside her brother, and leaned against the railing. "We're havin' ice-cream with chocolate chips after dinner," she suggested.

Kurt didn't hear a word she said. "I don't belong here."

"'Course ya do," said his sister. "We're yoah family."

Kurt snorted. The mention of family had been a mistake. "No. I don't." He jumped from his perch.

"Kurt, don't go!" yelled Rogue, jumping to catch him. She only succeeding in launching herself far enough over the rail to crash over the top of it, and she barely stopped herself from falling the rest of the way to the ground by catching one of the balusters. She scraped down the outside of the railing and her hip bounced off the end of the balcony's slab floor before she was left hanging from the one hand.

"Ouch," she said dryly before reaching up and grabbing another pillar with her free hand. 'Great,' she thought to herself. 'Kurt's going to run himself straight into some trouble.' The southerner looked above and considered the amount of effort involved in pulling herself up, deciding that dropping to the floor below would work better. From where she was, though, she'd need something to break her fall — an eight foot drop on to concrete is not something you just do. She pulled her lower body up to wrap a leg around the floor when she smelled tobacco smoke. After looking down, Rogue relaxed again.

"Put it out, swamp rat!" she yelled. The Cajun looked up, startled, to see her dangling from the balcony directly above him, and immediately tossed his cigarette away.

"What are y' doin' up dere, chérie?" he asked.

"Falling," Rogue replied, and closing her eyes, let go.

Remy caught the southerner as easily as if catching falling women was something he did on a daily basis. He looked down at the girl that was lax in his arms. "Isn't dis th' way I'm s'posed to carry y' o'er d'thres'ol after we marry, chérie? An'ere I t'ought y' didn't trus' me."

Rogue opened her eyes and glared at him. "Do you _want_ me to suck the laife force raight outta ya?"

The Cajun shrugged. "It's a start."

Rogue made a noise somewhere between a growl, a groan, and a sigh, and rolled out of his grip. As she did so, she reached into his coat and removed a two foot long metal pole. "Borrow this?" she asked, and didn't wait for an answer before turning and running for the garage.

"Wait, chérie!" yelled Gambit, running after her. "Don' y' need it open?!"

Rogue stopped suddenly and turned around, causing Remy to crash into her. "When I need it," she replied, and pecked his lips. It was purely to get the information that would be at the front of his mind, she told herself. That would, despite that he might try to hide it, tell her how to use every function of the staff "Thanks," she said as he fell to the ground, and then she turned away and continued running.

Behind her, Remy groaned. He was surprised that giving in to it had made that much difference, that he hadn't even properly passed out. "Y' welcome, chere," he mumbled, pocketing the keys to his bike. If Rogue was going to follow her brother in to danger, she wasn't going without him.

Rogue cursed as she discovered the lack of keys on her person. She was sure she hadn't put them down yet. '_I don't have time for this,_' the southerner thought as she ran out from the garage again. Looking to the gate, the mansion, and back again, Rogue noticed two surprising things. One was Remy pushing himself up off the ground – shouldn't he be out cold? – and the other was Warren Worthington III, walking up to the gate. An opportunity. She ran for the gate.

"Rogue!" he exclaimed as she punched in the access code to open it. "How are you? I'm just here to talk to the Professor about this Az–"

He never got to finish what he was saying on account of passing out. Rogue wasn't normally one to tap and run like that, but she figured she'd already done it once this evening and she technically knew the Cajun better than Angel. '_Angels versus demons and they're all really mutants, huh?_' Rogue shook her head and continued running. As she did so, the physical characteristics unique to Warren's mutation began to take effect. She realised too late what the implications of this would be on her clothing, and was only saved from a 'wardrobe malfunction' by the hem that connected the straps on her top. Her over-shirt fell away, useless.

Behind her, on his motorcycle, Remy cursed as he saw the girl's new wings spread, and she left the ground. In contrast to Angel's classic whites, the southerner sported black, Ravenesque wings, with a white band near each end. Still, Rogue did look like an angel. An angel of death. He revved the bike's engine and sped after her, ignoring Warren's prone form at the gate.

X-Men rushed out of the mansion, startled by not the noise itself, but Logan's reaction to it. The Canadian growled, seeing Gambit, Rogue, and Kurt – who was so far off that no-one else would be able to – moving away. "Suit up," he commanded, "Something bad's going to happen." He looked down at the unconscious Warren. "And it's already started."

* * *

His wings folded behind his back, Kurt sat on the edge of the precipice. Watching the sea was, for whatever reason, of great comfort to him, and here he could watch it, still, far from any of the people he had betrayed. Or at least that's what he thought.

Hidden in the trees behind him, Rogue just watched on. It was probably best to wait for him to come back of his own accord, and she was just keeping on eye on him. Ready in case he got himself into trouble. Thre were two more there, but neither Kurt nor Rogue were paying enough attention to realise this.

After a short while, the southerner decided that it wasn't worth just waiting for her brother, and one thing he really needed right now was someone to lean on. She stepped out from where she was hiding, apparently not careful enough to avoid a stray branch on the ground.

Kurt's head turned at the snapping sound. "Vhy did you have to follow me here?!" he yelled. "Couldn't you just–"

"If it was me, it's what you would've done." Rogue said it so quietly that ordinarily he probably wouldn't have heard it, but as things were if she'd said it any louder it wouldn't have had any effect.

After a brief reprise to guilt over blowing up at his sister, Kurt's madness returned to him. "Now I know vhy you wanted me to avoid teleporting," he scoffed. Turning away, he tried to do that very thing, and was surprised when instead he was thrust backwards and his dimensional gate was forced wide open.

At that moment, several things happened. One, several of the creatures that lived in that dimension jumped through. Two, some grotesque looking beings appeared around the area. Many had wings and horns similar to Kurt's, and had arrived in much the same way he often did. Three, Rogue launched herself into the air, opening Gambit's staff and spreading her wings.

Not long after, another winged man stepped through, and Rogue recognised him as a memory of her adoptive mother's past hit her in a flash. It was more than likely that Mystique had been telling the truth — Rogue could remember the event in disturbing detail, and really could have done without it. He looked pretty much like a red version of Kurt, but larger and with claws.

"Thank you, my son," he said to Kurt.

Kurt had been about to descry what he'd just heard, but Rogue was first to the punch. "You leave him alone!" she exclaimed, drawing the man's attention as now Gambit's power too surfaced in her, causing the staff to burn in his characteristic red flame.

"No! You'll not take me, Azrael!" the man cried, seeing for the first time Rogue in her full glory, black wings outstretched and wielding a burning weapon. He took one of his own weapons and flicked it at her.

Rogue barely had time to react before the dagger buried itself in her stomach and she fell to the ground. The last thing she saw before the blackness overtook her was Azazel carrying a struggling Kurt away through the boy's own portal….

* * *

Ack! Almost 10 days since the last update. That's not gonna make ya's happy. Probably neither did my cliffy.  
Before anyone make a fool of themselves, Azrael and Azazel are _not_ the same. You may note that to Remy, Rogue looked like 'An angel of death.' Make the connection.  
Kudos to UncannyAsianGirl for both pulling me up on and helping me sort out Kurt's family background. Y'all may wish to re-read chapter 7 as some connections made have been dropped.   
Next chapter: What has Azazel done with Kurt? Who were the other two there? Is Rogue dead? (C'mon people, like you have to ask that question? As such I ask all Rogue fanatics who are plotting my death to please wait for the next chapter before making any rash desicions).  
I'll try to get it done ASAP, but if it's not there by Monday don't hold your breath because a week is a long time to try. I won't be near my computer in this time.

Responses to Reviews

**Miss Poisonous**: I didn't mix the 'verses by accident, but I missed a discrepancy between the two that I shouldn't have. They are frightening, aren't they?

**UncannyAsianGirl**: Do you realise that was over 1000 words?! Now, let's try and keep this short, by removing some no-longer-relevant threads:  
Kitty then suddenly lost her ability to air walk it seems. I decided she wasn't aware she was doing it.  
You missed the Rogue not remembering absorbing Logan bit?  
Let's just assume that Rogue _knew_ what the cards were. It wouldn't be hard to figure it out, using chaos theory projections from the last time she absorbed him. As to N'Awlins and stalking away, the Evo Rogue _is_ touchy, and Remy reminded her of the time he used her.  
Rogue's accent has gone soft, and the southerner thing comes back when she's nervous or stressed, or just at the beginning of a sentence sometimes. This is intentional.  
Some other less related stuff; Mind if I steal the Kitty thing in another fic? It _would_ be funny, and I was already planning on doing creppy stuff to her. Thanks for the link to mcskins' (Now go have a look at the top of the script for _Rogue Recruit_ :·P Yes, it got there after you pointed me to the site). Thanks also for the link to the directory, though I already had that _very page_ in my auto-completion list.


	11. Waking

Mystique was understandably unimpressed by her house burning. Pyro had been running from her for the last half hour, and whilst he was so far successful in his attempts to survive, he was soon going to have to find some method of running away much faster than he could run, or protect himself with pyrotechnics. Fortunately, opportunity presented itself.

"Maaayte! Stop! Gemme outta here!" St. John proceeded to flag down Gambit on his motorcycle by stepping into the middle of the road and waving his arms.

Being forced to stop, Remy was notably annoyed. "Get out o' the way, y' moron! I'll lose track of Rogue!"

That caught Mystique's attention, and she paused her current action that essentially involved killing the Australian. "What about Rogue?" she asked, concern clear in her voice.

"I t'ink she's following Nightcrawler somewhere, an' she's definetly headed f'r trouble. I've got t' go after her!"

Within a second, the metamorph was on the bike behind him. "Well, what are you waiting for? Move it!" Remy was unsure of why Mystique felt it important she go with him, and uneasy at the knowledge that she was most definitely one of the X-Men's enemies, but her sense of urgency coupled with his own prevented him from arguing.

Pyro, confused, watched them speed away down the road. "Well, I guess that works too…."

* * *

Blackness; Absolute dark. And something she'd craved ever since she could remember — quiet. It wasn't just since her powers manifested, either — no, since she first absorbed Cody, the quiet parts of her past before then had been stolen from her. She hadn't had those dreams and those nightmares, all those experiences, but she could remember having them, and that took away from herself.

Now all that was gone. Rogue had never been more content. The memories were still there, but no longer pushed on her as though they were a part of what was happening to her _now_. She could feel them, sort them into their places. Her own mind, her own way. Even memories that had been hidden from her became ordered; Absorbing the X-Men, Brotherhood, and Acolytes. Waking Apocalypse. Kissing Remy the first time, used as a tool to steal his life force. Mystique yelling at Mesmero… and then some old memories that came to light, Irene's mysterious friend that was always uneasy around the young girl, but always bringing little trinkets, her image now replaced with that of Mystique. The woman she truly was — she _wanted_ to care, Rogue realised, but she wouldn't let herself.

Then the pain hit her. What was that about? Oh yeah, she'd been stabbed.

No matter.

_Rogue– No, Logan sighed as he looked down at Rogue's sleeping figure. Whatever Apocalypse had done to her must have been one heck of an ordeal, worse than anything he could have done to the rest of them. _Rogue_ was the untouchable one, damn it!_

_He looked up at the heart-rate monitor and sighed again. Contrary to what the Prof. had said, her heartbeat was weakening with every minute. "C'mon Ace," he growled. "Don't give up on me now."_

_At that point, Hank walked into the room. "Can't let her go, can you?" he asked. "Listen, I know that Charles was just trying to keep the children quiet when he said she'd be fine, and I know that you know it too. We have to be willing to accept that–"_

_"No." Logan's voice was little more than a whisper, but this was characteristic of him when he was becoming mad._

_"If she decides it's her time–"_

_"No! That's bullshit, Hank, and I'm not fucking taking it from you, or that you believe it yourself. There ain't no such 'time,' and even if there was, this isn't hers. She's too young, too i–…"_

_"Too what, Logan? Inexperienced?"_

_"Too God damned important, Hank! For once, Mystique was right. Stripes has got a role to play. A big one."_

_"What's got into you, Logan?"_

_The Canadian didn't answer. There was of course the real reason she was important to him. It sounded stupid if he said it, even to himself, but she was important because she just was. Making a desicion, he removed his gloves, and held Rogue's hand in his. She could be healed physically at least, he thought, willing his power into Rogue before he collapsed._

Now, she pulled it to the surface.

* * *

"Chérie!" Mystique's instruction that they just let the siblings work it out be damned, Remy's girl was hurt, damn it! The red eyed mutant didn't waste any time in thinking about it, he just ran to his amour.

Behind him, Mystique moved much more slowly. She'd seen this kind of thing so often before — although it was more normal for her to be the one throwing the knife. Another important factor to her, though, was the man who had discarded her taking her son, away to someplace else. She could barely utter a single word; "No," it was, then.

Remy, on the other hand, couldn't seem to slow down. Already by Rogue's side, his speech came as an incomprehensible blabber. He'd seen enough killing before, too, but wasn't prepared to accept it happening to his Rogue. "No, chere, don' be dead," he cried. "Je t'aime, ma chere. I need you! C'mon, Rogue, wake up!" He started sobbing.

Because of this, he didn't notice Rogue's eyes flutter open. The girl looked up at Gambit, slowly realising what he thought had happened. At this point she could have done any number of things. She could have said some soothing words, caressed his face with her gloved hand. Done something a lover would do….

No, the only way to bring the Cajun back to reality was to be as she'd always been to him. "Stop bein' so dramatic, Mr. LeBeau," she said, "and pull it outta meh!"

Mystique, who had just been standing there, staring at her adoptive daughter's lifeless face, now blinked for the first time since she saw her fall. A single tear drop slid down her cheek, and she smiled slightly. "Rogue?"

"Chérie?" Gambit finally said, staring down at his fellow southerner with a slightly dazed look.

"Look, Remy, either pull it out, or get out of the way before it makes its own way out, 'cause it'll do so at haigh speed."

"You should do what she says, Gumbo!" Wolverine yelled before jumping from the X-Velocity, that neither Gambit nor Mystique had noticed until now, hovering about 20 feet above. He landed in a crouch next to Gambit, leaving a divot in the ground, still getting up easily. "I'd say from the hilt and how much blood there is that the blade is at least four inches long. It's pretty close to vital organs, too, so the healing factor will want to get rid of it as quickly as possible." He moved Remy out of the way, and gripped the hilt, looking into Rogue's eyes. "Kitty told be about what happened in your room. You ready?"

Rogue nodded, and gritted her teeth. She still screamed as Logan pulled the knife out, but it came out more like a hissing, gurgling groan through her teeth. The southerner continued to groan as her insides knitted themselves back together, and fell back into unconsciousness just slightly after all that was left was a hardly visible scar on her abdomen. This time, however, she rested in Gambit's arms.

"Where's the blue squirrel?" Logan asked Mystique as the Helijet lowered to the ground.

"If you're referring to _my son_, Wolverine," replied the shapeshifter, tearing up again but remaining indignant of the man's attitude, "he's with his father. I hope I don't need to tell you that that could have some serious… repercussions."

Logan raised an eyebrow as he realised what the metamorph was implying. "You don't mean–?"

"I have to get him back…." Mystique could not bring herself to utter the demon's name.

Wolverine found himself surprised by the concern present in her attitude. "Don't worry," he assured her, "We'll get him back."

* * *

When Kurt awoke, he found the smell of sulphur overwhelming. Presumably, that nightmare had had him teleporting in his sleep again… He opened his eyes slowly, taking in his surroundings. Yellow sky, molten rock, mighty pinnacles of brimstone.

It had been no dream. He was, fortuitously enough, lying on a bed, and was rather surprised to hear growling coming from the foot of it. He leaned over the edge of the bed, and was shocked to see one of the monsters from his nightmares, those very real creatures that had followed him out into the world, curled up there, snoring. He screamed.

"You're awake; The first one. Impressive." Dry speech, no emotion. Kurt turned to face its source. "Then again, I should expect that of you. You did, after all, manage to hold that portal open all by yourself."

"You," Kurt accused. He couldn't find anything else to say, though, as his mind was still boggling over the thing before him that was the very image of himself, but without the blue skin or fur. Well, it no longer had horns or wings, but close enough.

"I see you found my pet," continued Azazel. "Very hard to train, those things. They don't want anything, they just want. It is very annoying."

"Vhat do you vant from me?" Kurt asked nervously. He suspected he would not like the answer.

"What does any father want with his son?" the demon asked.

Kurt just sagged at this. "Vith my luck, you're zis 'Azazel,' and you're telling ze truth, ja?"

The demon nodded.

"And I thought having Mystique for a mother vas bad…."

Now Azazel laughed. "Come now, you can't possibly just assume that because I look like this, I'm worse than that heartless bitch you call 'Mutter?' Look at you! How do you judge _your_self?"

Kurt's eyes narrowed. "Nein!" he yelled. "I vill not accept zis! You even call yourself after a devil!"

"A god, if you please," replied the demonic mutant, "Even if it is very perceptive of you to note that I am like yourself, nothing more. Have it your way, then, but I do not think you will like it in the end." Azazel snapped his fingers, and immediately Kurt found himself bound by his wrist and ankles.

"I am _nothing_ like you," spat Kurt, before trying to port away. His attempt at escape was in vain.

"Come now, do you really think after nine thousand years I wouldn't have thought of some way to beat the gifts your Professor calls the X-Gene?"

Kurt growled. It didn't matter much what else to him anymore, he had to get out of there. He looked around for anything he could use, and that's when he saw them. The others. There were hundreds of them. "What do you want vith _us_?" he asked, not intending to be heard.

* * *

Eep! Long update time! Don't kill me, pwease?  
Well, it would seem that my other story is already almost as long as this one, and it's only 4 chapters so far! Whoa.

No review responses this time, except to say to ldypebsaby, 'I don't know how I could have stabbed this "Rouge" person, as I don't know who they are.'

Seem like I have to start pleading for reviews again. Please, _**Review me!**_ Don't make me do the burning pants dance! (Which the lessons for come with the warning, _Failure to remove pants entirely by the end of the second bar may result in horrible flaming death._ You don't want me to die a horrible flaming death, do you? Come to think of it, I bet most of you don't want me to remove my pants. That goes double if you're British).


	12. Powers that Be

_Previously_ :: Kurt looked around for anything he could use, and that's when he saw them. The others. There were hundreds of them. "What do you want vith _us_?" he asked, not intending to be heard.

Azazel smirked. "Do you want the specific details for each of you, or just the general idea?"

Kurt rolled his eyes. "Don't botzher."

"It's quite simple, really," his self-proclaimed father said anyway, "I've been locked in a dimension hostile to all who enter for almost as long as I've been alive. You, my children, can help me return to where I came from."

"Oh how touching!" exclaimed Kurt. "I suppose you think it's only a little stretch to raise an army and take over ze world vhile you're at it, huh?! And zen you can rule vith an iron fist, crushing all who dare oppose you?"

Now the demonic mutant laughed. "So quick to judge, so quick to condemn. Kurt, my son, I merely want to go home. I am already a leader amongst my kind, and any of them would gladly tell you that they follow me because to them I am fair and just. I am no more violent than many who have been rulers upon Earth before."

Kurt's eyes narrowed. "You killed meine Schwester."

"Really?" Azazel asked, one eyebrow raised. "And your 'Schwester' would be whom? The black-winged rogue who is the preincarnation of Death herself? It would figure that you would somehow be related to the harbinger of apocalypses. And you think _I'm_ bad…. Anyway, I assure you she's fine – and I'm surprised you don't know that yourself. You _should_ know that she writes her own rules, even when it comes to death."

"Somehow I don't feel compelled to take your vord for it. Rogue has only brought one Apocalypse, and she was under mind control at zer time. She vouldn't do somezhing like that intentionally."

Azazel shrugged. "The sooner you decide to help me, the sooner you can see for yourself. Besides, you're only thinking in the past tense."

* * *

The sound of an explosion rocked the mansion to its foundations. Conclusions were jumped to, and panic ensued. Divers alarums was alive and well, it seemed. Perhaps the most accurate theory in the conference room was Logan's. "What's Gumbo blown up now?" he growled, moving to stand.

Behind him, Remy raised his hands in exasperation. "It weren't Remy!" he exclaimed. "T'ough I do 'ave un massive headache, since."

"It seems we need to replace a large section of the medical wing again," supplied Xavier from his place at the head of the large oak table. "What we just heard was Rogue waking up. Which may also explain your headache, Gambit."

"Oui? How is this?" the Cajun asked.

"Mah own personal upgrade service," Rogue said, stepping out of the shadow in one corner of the room. "Seems like I have some kind of control over my imprinted psyches finally. Trick is, if Ah choose to invoke your psyche, it does this kind of remote absorption on ya."

"That would certainly explain at least a part of how you managed to absorb Jean without touching her," agreed Hank. "I still don't understand how you managed to give her mind the idea to be hungover in the morning, however…."

"Presumably her power reacted with her telepathy," explained the Professor, before addressing Rogue. "We already know that your power can be a little unpredictable as to the results it yields. As an example, it would seem that whenever you've absorbed a physical mutation, Mystique's power has kicked in to allow you to both adapt the mutation faster and control it more precisely; Magneto's security tapes certainly show that with Piotr's power.…"

"Perhaps you can use this newfound ability to find out where your brother is?" The example mutant herself asked from the door. Mystique had brought herself to the mansion on Remy's motorcycle, and while her reception was cold she'd been allowed entry on the basis that the matters now being approached by the X-Men concerned her children and past. Logan growled as she stalked towards the table.

"Raven, please," said Charles, "while you _are_ a guest in our house for the time being, you are not a member of the X-Men, and are not welcome at out meetings unless called."

"Well, excuse me for being concerned about my son's wellbeing," the shapeshifter retorted. "Anyway, if the prince of thieves over here can join the X-Men" – she indicated Gambit – "Why don't you want me?"

"Mystique," replied the telepath, "Mr. LeBeau has proven himself to be loyal to at least one individual on the team, and he has no plans to 'knock out the evolutionary deadwood that is humanity,' as you put it. Because of your crimes in the past and your demeanour which is unpredictable at best, were _you_ to live to a thousand years, atoning for your crimes for every one of those days, however, you would not be worthy to be one of my X-Men."

"It doesn't have anything to do with your inability to probe my head at whim? Besides, When I make one thousand, Xavier," Raven retorted sarcastically, "Your X-Men will exist only in myth. Maybe I'll dance on your grave that day? Well, that will be long gone, too, I guess. Such a shame, as I was _so_ looking forward to joining your band of merry morons."

"_When_ you make one thousand?" snarled Wolverine. "Even I probably won't make that age. You'll be lucky to leave this room alive, let alone make a thousand or even a hundred!"

"Oh, really?" Mystique smirked. "You'd have to destroy the room first, dearest Wolverine. Also, I'm afraid it's quite impossible for me to _make_ a hundred years. I might just have to remind you of a story about a young man who worked demolitions in a quarry in British Columbia once, who sprouted claws and killed a man and girl. Strangely, when I asked his fellow workers what his name was, they could only provide me with an alias – What was it? Ah yes, 'Logan.' You were still fighting acne, I believe, while I was a private investigator approaching what is middle age to our inferiors, on the trail of a young man called James who had an _unusual_ ability relating to his skeletal structure."

"Ah can't absorb hiahm," Rogue announced, her thickening drawl betraying the drain that the effort of trying to get up to date with her adoptive brother's mind had on her.

"That's odd," said Raven, and indeed her face was a mask of confusion. "Can't you try harder, darling?"

"Yeah, if Ah wan'ed ta _kill_ 'ahm," replied the southerner. "Heah's aowt there somewheah, Ah can feel it, just it's laike his phaise has been shiftahd so we do'ahnt exist at thah saime tahm."

"That definitely sounds like Azazel's style," Mystique muttered.

"Iet's laike heah's in some othah dah– dahmeh…"

Remy found himself again catching the belle femme as she collapsed from exhaustion. "Chere, you shoul' take it easy. All dis power use be enough t'put anyone out o'it. You take a rest now, ça va?"

Rogue looked up groggily into his red on black eyes and nodded. «Ça va bien, garçon,» she said, before resting her head on his breast. The Cajun swept her up, and carried her to an armchair, where he sat down, draping her legs over an armrest, and holding her tight to him, his own eyes closed.

"That boy likes living dangerously," Logan sneered, rasing one eyebrow as to everyone's surprise Rogue cuddled into her Cajun captor.

"Still awake, y'know, Badger," Remy hissed. Rogue shifted slightly and snuggled closer into his neck.

"And speaking of dangerous," Hank interjected, "Since when was Rogue your 'darling?'"

"Since she was four, if you must know," replied Mystique darkly. "I _am_ her adoptive mother. Isn't a mother allowed to love her daughter?"

"Trust meh, it's a sentiment that ain't appreciated," Rogue mumbled lazily.

"Another dimension?" piped in Jean, who felt that the group was losing focus.

"Yes," replied the Professor, "that would explain why I couldn't contact him even using Cerebro; Or it's one explanation, anyway," he continued, glancing at Mystique as he was painfully aware of the effect her power had on his telepathy, and also that an Alpha-level female _could_ pass on traits of her mutation – certainly some of her other characteristics were present in Kurt's physiology.

"That doesn't quite explain why Rogue was unable to connect with him, though," replied Mystique. "Destiny saw that something like that ability would develop, but that she was quite capable of re-absorbing beings in other dimensions."

"That may be a further change that will develop later," suggested Hank.

"No," replied the Professor, "Mutants with aggregate powers like Rogues have to develop in very specific and sharp stages, or they may not survive the process of mutation. In her case, I think it's safe to assume that the maximum extent of this new ability was realised the first time she used it. Rogue has also always showed remarkable control over her powers considering their nature–"

"That's bullshit, Chuck," interrupted Logan. "If she has such amazing control over her powers, how come she can't touch?"

"It's her base physical mutation." The answer had come from Mystique.

"We already knew that. Care to explain the relevance?" asked Scott. He was quickly losing patience with the metamorph's presence.

Mystique moved to answer, but was cut off by Xavier — and she was probably the only person in the world to whom he would do so. "Alpha-level mutants and some Beta-levels tend to have a base mutation that is always on. Telepaths, myself and Jean included, are generally unable to shut out projected thoughts except by the extremely normal human trait of ignoring them. Most with a physical side to their mutation are unable to shut that off – examples would but Nightcrawler's overall physical appearance, Iceman's lowered body temperature, Beast's hyperactive metabolism and oversized forelimbs, Gambit's eye colour, Angel's wings…."

"Is that why I can't shut off my optic blasts?"

The Professor just smiled at him, and knotted his fingers together in his patented way that everyone else in the room knew meant that he was working out a way to avoid answering the question, but Scott was oblivious to because of his inability to believe that his mentor could ever be dishonest in any way. Most of the room was silent.

Mystique, however, always the antagonist, scoffed. "More like brain damage," she said, and Xavier glared at her briefly.

Scott raised his hand to his glasses, glaring at the shapeshifter. "The Professor says _you're_ an Alpha-level. What's you base mutation? Being an obnoxious, deceptive, bitch?"

"No, that's a result of human conditioning. Unlike what some people would have you believe, my attitude towards humans is in actual fact a reaction to the way they treat our kind. If you really want to know, I was born with a sort of automatic protective shapeshifting, that included my immunity to poisons. You're most likely to be imbued with a physical protection against whatever the beams you and your brother emit are made out of, I would have thought. Perhaps your uncanny Professor never told you about that, either?"

"You are one step away from being blasted, lady!" yelled the X-Man, now gripping the edge of his glasses' frames.

"Go ahead and shoot," replied Mystique, smirking, "You remember what happened last time? Or maybe you'd like to know why your 'surrogate father' hasn't answered your question yet before you do?"

Scott now hesitated. The glare Xavier had given the metamorph before _hadn't_ gone unnoticed. "Professor?"

Charles paused a little too long before starting to answer. "Scott, you know how I am always trying to look out for you? Well sometimes–"

"It's true then!" screamed Cyclops, nearly smacking Jean in the face with his arms as he swung them out in agitation, leaving his glasses on his face, before sitting down again. "Christ, Professor, don't you think that's something I should have known about?!"

"Scott, calm down," started Charles, "You need to understand–"

"Oh, I understand! You don't trus–"

"Shut up already or you're takin' a week long nap!" threatened Rogue from across the room. The hysterical Alaskan shut his mouth immediately. "Fuck, some of us are trying to get some rest here."

"Language, Rogue," admonished the Professor. "Maybe you should rest somewhere… more relaxing?"

"Whatever," the southerner said, before _bamf_ing herself and her living cushion away.

"Anyway, the reason why Charles here hasn't been able to help our little Rogue with her inability to touch," said Mystique, "is because the only way to do it would be to cut off her access to her mutation entirely."

"It's unusual for a physical mutation that's linked in with psionics to be at such a base level," continued the Professor, "but it seems that it's as much a part of Rogue as anything. Not that _Raven_ felt it was important to tell the truth about that to _her_ daughter."

"You never did either," Mystique reminded.

"Phase shifted?" chimed in Kitty at this point. "Is that like how I change the phase of my molecules?"

"Yes, and no," said a voice from the door. Amanda Sefton walked in, dragging her mother behind her. "Young Kurt is somewhere that is both another dimension and a different time," Margali continued. "It is known as Limbo."

* * *

‹Dramatic Orchestra Music: DUM, DUM, DUUUUUM!› He's in an outer circle of Hell? Well, not quite, I'd hazard a guess. I don't know if Azazel was locked in True Limbo (Which I think is the same in the Marvel universe as in Dante's _Inferno_, ie. the outer circle of Hell where everything happens in the same instant and nothing ever changes), or Belasco's Limbo, but it certainly makes more sense if he was in the latter (And it certainly wasn't Rom's Limbo).

In case you can't work it out, Rogue says: I can't absorb him … Yeah, if I wanted to kill him. He's out there somewhere, I can feel it, just it's like his phase has been shifted so we don't exist at the same time … It's like he's in some other di– dime(nsion).

«Ça va bien, garçon.» – "Okay, boyfriend," sort of. Translates more literally as "That seems good, boy," but y'know French is all about context, right?

Thanks and cookies go to Gryphon124, Dark Inu Fan, and Anonymous Reviewer #7 (Who reviewed as 'anony,' which while very true isn't helpful at all, so don't blame me if your cookie gets lost in transit) for reviewing.  
**Dark Inu Fan**: There was a story arc in Uncanny X-Men, called 'Draco' I think, in which Kurt's father Azazel was revealed. It doesn't agree with many other things, but there you go. The old world 'count' (sometimes he's a baron, too), actually was infertile and suspicious of the fact that Mystique was pregnant, whcih is why she stabbed him and ran away.  
**Gryphon124**: Do burning pants scare you? Or maybe you're British? Okay, then, I won't beg for reviews.

**_REVIEW ME OR ELSE!_** (I won't get reviews. If I don't get reviews I won't be happy. You don't want to know me when I'm not happy). 


	13. Entertaining Guests

_Previously_ :: "Yes, and no. Young Kurt is somewhere that is both another dimension and a different time," Margali Sefton explained, whilst being dragged into the room by her daughter. "It is known as Limbo."

"Limbo?" asked Hank, apparently oblivious to the successful intrusion of the two onto the campus. "You mean the outer circle of Hell?"

"Obviously a literary man," replied the woman, "but no, not the place Dante described. It is called as such because the time there is incomparable to its passage here. What is a minute here may there be an hour, a century, or even a second."

"Alright, we've had enough intruders for one night," growled Logan, indicating Mystique. He turned back to the Seftons. "How did you get in here and what for?"

"To get Kurt back," replied Amanda. "What else?"

"No," Margali stated, "_You_ want to get Kurt back. I only came because we need to prevent certain elements from coming here to Earth."

"Elements?" the Professor inquired.

"Trust me on this," the sorceress replied, "you don't want to know."

"Yes we do," Kitty yawned. "I mean, we're probably going to end up fighting them and everything. That seems to be what always happens."

"If it comes to that, you're more or less doomed either way."

"Well, that certainly makes me _happy_," complained Scott. "Brain damaged and doomed. Sheesh…."

"Oh, quit whining!" Jean commanded. "You see, that is _exactly_ why the Professor didn't say anything. He knew you'd overreact!"

"You know, I trusted him," continued the annoyed Alaskan, standing up again. "I trusted him with everything. And he won't even trust me with a few simple truths. That's real great."

"Scott, please just calm down," Xavier requested. "Listen, I–"

"No, Professor," Scott yelled, "_You_ listen. I'm sick of it. I'm sick of all this–"

"Yes, all right!" This outburst had come again from Mystique. "You're sick of it. Well, guess what, I've been sick of a lot of things since long before you were even born. You and your problems, Mr. Summers, are no more than the smallest little blip on the radar." She sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose. "Ugh, I need some sleep," she declared before turning to leave the room.

Xavier glanced at Logan, who raised an eyebrow and nodded before vaulting off the table over the top of Mystique, twisting in the air so that he was facing her. Punching her throat, he slid out the two outer claws on his hand. "You ain't going anywhere, bub," he growled. "Move, and I'll pop the third claw."

Mystique smiled. "You do that," she laughed. "I mean, heck, I might need a bandage — do you want me to bleed on the floor?"

Logan wasn't known for his patience. He popped his claw, right through the shapeshifter's neck, and when he retracted the three of them she fell to the floor. This caused most of the occupants of the room to gag, but Logan just stepped over her body, smirking.

The silence that followed was broken by the calming voice of Henry McCoy. "I hate to be siding with our traditional enemy here, but the lady did have a point. It's two a.m, we should all be sleeping — certainly the students, by any means."

"Nah, we're fine," slurred Kitty, waving a hand in the air dismissively. She promptly fell asleep on the table — or rather, through it, as the natural state of the girl's body was to be intangible. The Seftons watched with expressions of horror as she continued to descend, through her chair, until she was lying peacefully on a cushion of air two inches above the floor.

"Does she _always_ sleep like that?" asked Amanda.

"Actually, from what Dani tells us," Hank answered, "she normally sleeps _inside_ her mattress."

"Well, _that's_ unique," said a drunken-sounding voice behind Logan. Before he had time to look around, a pair of blue arms hooked around his neck and Mystique pulled herself up to almost her full height behind him. She leaned her head against the top of the Canadian's and he felt blood trickling down the back of his hair. "That actually hurt, you bastard," she sneered, and then giggled as she saw his expression reflected in a window. "Still, at least it's not _my_ floor. Not that I have one at the moment."

Very slowly, Logan asked "what the hell?"

"Aw, did the cute little Wolverine not realise I could just shift my vital organs out of the way?” taunted the shapeshifter, before collapsing again, this time over Logan's shoulder. "And I mean, _really_ hurt," she conceded, and passed out.

"I guess I should… do something about this?" Logan inferred, looking down at Mystique who was now sleeping in his arms. He then noticed that hole he'd made in her was being knitted over by a new skin incredibly quickly. "Or maybe not."

"You could try giving it another go," grumbled Scott. "Maybe take her head clean off this time?"

Hank rolled his eyes. "I think I'd better bandage her up and take her away from you people," he said, retrieving the woman from Logan before heading off to the med bay.

Xavier watched Dr. McCoy go, and rubbed his temples. "That was uncalled for, Logan," he pointed out, looking up at the Canadian.

Wolverine shrugged. "She had it coming."

During the whole meeting Piotr had, as always, remained silent. Standing, he now spoke. "_No-one_ deserves that, my friend."

"You wanna make a point of it, bub?"

Colossus sighed, and activated his armour. Then he shook his head in dismay, moved Kitty's chair away from on top of her, and picked up the girl's sleeping form — she sank into his arms a little, but stayed there. "We must speak later," he said to Margali, before marching out of the room.

"Did anyone else just see that?" asked Scott.

"Yes," confirmed Xavier. "It would be interesting to know how he does it."

Logan just snorted before storming off himself.

"Maybe we should come back tomorrow?" Margali observed.

"Yes, Mrs. Sefton. I think that would be a good idea." Charles sighed, and looked up at the woman. "My apologies to you about Stefan."

The sorceress hung her head. "In the words of your Wolverine, I'm afraid to say he had it coming. It is unfortunate that Kurt had to be involved." She turned to her daughter. "Come, Amanda, let's go home."

"Wouldn't it be easier if we stayed here for the night?" the girl inquired.

Margali glanced to Xavier and back. "No, we shouldn't put any more burden on these people than they already have," she replied hurriedly.

"Oh, but I insist," said Xavier. "We have one guest room free now, seeing as how Mystique will most likely be spending the night in the infirmary." He beamed at them.

Amanda returned the smile in like, though her mother seemed hesitant. "Alright," she finally agreed, "we will stay here."

* * *

To most people, it would seem that the blue demon was asleep. In fact, Kurt was working out a plan to escape — problem was, he couldn't get past the hurdle of being unable to teleport in any of them; He may as well have been resting, until a deep rumbling voice spoke his codename. Well, close enough, anyway — it actually sounded more like 'Nutcrawler.'

"Vhat now?!" hissed Kurt, turning to face the enormous man who'd interrupted his reverie — and it _was_ a man, surprisingly enough. The only thing about him that could be described in any way as demonic were the tattoos that outlined his face, well, if you excluded his glowing red eyes — something which being around Remy had taught Kurt to do. The other standing next to him was another matter entirely — like Kurt, he was covered in blue fur, and unlike anyone the teleporter had ever seen, seemed to have no nose whatsoever.

It was the second one who now spoke, but the voice was not the one that had called him. "I am Nils," he said, "and this is Eruera." He gestured towards the giant man.

"Um…. Hallo. I'm Kurt. Vhat do you want?"

Eruera laughed silently. "Mostly, I want a drink," he said, and then his expression may as well have been carved in stone. "But there is no way I'm drinking anything in this place."

Kurt half closed one eye and raised his other brow as the Maori looped one of the teleporter's chains around his hand. "What are you doing?" he asked.

Eruera twisted and pulled at the same time, and several links splintered on either side of the twist. "Azazel requests our company at his table," he explained.

"What, all of us?" asked Kurt. He had, it turned out, thirty half-brothers by the demon. These were the only two he knew by name.

"Nope," Nils supplied, "Just us three."

"Can you pull yourself free from the others?" Eruera inquired. "Using your power, I mean."

Kurt concentrated for a moment, and successfully out of his restraints. "Thankyou, Er– uh…."

"Eruera." The Maori smiled, and patted Nightcrawler on the back. "I am known as Kiwi Black, if you really find it that hard."

"So, what are your powers?" Nightcrawler asked jovially.

"I can open a hole in space that draws things into it," replied Nils. "I don't know where to; I've never gotten anything back. I guess you could say it's a kind of Abyss"

Kurt couldn't resist; The line was just too obvious. "Man, that must suck," he exclaimed.

"You said it, brother," laughed Nils. "What about you, Kiwi?"

The two of them looked around, but there was no sign of the tattooed mutant. "Eruera?" called Kurt, annunciating the name more easily than he thought. "Where did he go?" he asked Nils.

"Search me," replied Abyss. "On second thought, that might not be the best of ideas."

A moment later, Nightcrawler had pushed Nils out of the way of a thrown knife, which he caught with his tail. 'No way could he have been hiding there,' he thought, referring to Kiwi Black, who had thrown the knife, 'he would be too obvious.' The man had been standing right in front of them the whole time, and neither had seen him until he moved.

Stepping forward, Black took the knife from him and grinned, although it didn't make him look in any way happy. "I am also very strong," he added.

"_There_ you three are," said a feminine voice behind Kurt and Nils. The two of them turned to see a woman, not entirely dissimilar to them, who sported a pair of small wings on her back — and it was only now that Kurt realised that his were gone. "Come, my lord is becoming impatient," she insisted, and grabbed Kurt's wrist, leading off in the direction they were already heading.

"So…, I'm Jillian," she said to him as they walked. "I can fly and can teleport a short way, and I've got a _really_ big sword. And a little bit of empathy, but that doesn't really count for much here — pretty much everyone's shielded against it. What kind of stuff can you do?"

"Ah, I'm just a meagre teleporter," replied Nightcrawler, trying to discern Jillian's expression through the mask that covered the lower half of her face. "I have a little practice with swords, though," he added, a small grin present on his features. He still wriggled his hand free of her grasp despite it.

She launched herself into the air, preferring to fly rather than walk, and turned a corner rapidly in front the three, into a corridor that was abruptly terminated in a pair of giant doors. They were guarded by an enormous man, who looked for all the world to Kurt like the bastard lovechild of Wolverine and Sabretooth, with a bit of Juggernaut thrown in for good measure. He either grinned or grit his teeth at the much smaller teleporter – Kurt wasn't sure which – as they passed him into the dining hall. Jillian stopped and turned, rising into the air as she caught what he was feeling. "Ophis," she warned.

The feral just grunted and shut the doors behind him as he followed the four into the room.

"Ah, you made it!" exclaimed Azazel from the head of a long table that was set in the middle of the hall. It was one of many, most of which were seating many 'demons', feasting and jabbering with each other, and the occasional fight would break out — with weapons that wouldn't be allowed on a human battlefield. There were also a number of them standing, occasionally intervening like mediators in these fights. Except that most mediators would stop short of ramming a spear through the abdomen of someone who wouldn't stop struggling. "I was beginning to worry that you'd tried to run away."

One of the guards standing behind Azazel, Another brutish man, that Kurt recognised from when he'd been pulled here, snickered. "Of course, you wouldn't have made it," he sneered, and his feathery wings ruffled as he drew a long-blade axe from where it was slung over his back.

"Now, now, Ydrazil," Azazel remonstrated, "There will be no taunting of my scions."

"Sorry, m'lord," he replied, straightening up and letting his arms lax.

"Ydrazil's scared of Azazel," whispered Jillian into Kurt's ear as he sat at the table, "ever since he scarred his eye for accidentally killing someone he was interrogating."

"Zhat explains the eye patch," replied Kurt, raising an eyebrow. "But what about the scar on his chest?"

At this, the demoness just smiled.

"Now then," continued Azazel, shifting slightly to face his three sons present. "Have you decided to help me yet?" he asked, smiling as he cocked his head to one side. "Don't bother lying. Ginniyeh here –" he indicated the woman sitting in Lotus to his left with her eyes sewn shut "– has the telepathic ability to read truths."

Kiwi Black's face remained set in a defiant frown. Nils shrunk back in his chair, not daring to say anything. Kurt also remained silent for a while, but then grimaced and spoke his mind. "No. No reason for me to help you has been proven, and I have no guarantee that you will not do as your namesake. I will not let the people of my home be slaughtered."

Ydrazil let out a low growl, and then leapt at Kurt, flying over the table with his axe drawn. "Insolent!" he roared, and he sliced down at the young mutant, a blur too fast for him to track. Panic stricken, Nightcrawler found himself again unable to use his powers. He cringed and closed his eyes….

"Do you want me to cut you a fresh scar? Perhaps then we can see what my lord thinks of you attacking his son?" Kurt opened his eyes to see Jillian standing over him, a pike with an enormous blade clashing with the larger mutant's axe. She hissed, and then using her tail for extra leverage, flicked the weapon violently upwards so that Ydrazil was flipped over and sent sliding across the table until he came to a halt right in front of the demon king.

"You and your temper," chided Azazel, looking down at him. "Sadly, I'm almost tempted to let you at him. Ginniyeh?"

"He speaks the truth my lord," replied the truth diviner, "but is aware that he has made some assumptions that may not be correct."

Azazel sighed. "Very well. Seeing as the other two are not willing to speak, take them all back to their holding room. Ophis go with her." He looked up at Jillian. "Not you. I wish to speak with you."

Cautiously, Jillian approached Azazel as Ginniyeh picked up her twin scimitars and walked to the boys, taking a swipe at Jillian as they passed. The winged mutant dodged the swipe easily and glared at her colleague before continuing on her way.

"So," began Azazel after the door had been closed behind the escort. "I know you have a… _history_ with Ydrazil here, but why did you _really_ defend young Nightcrawler?"

"I was protecting your most powerful scion from being harmed, my lord. Why would you think otherwise?"

"Please, Jillian. Just as you can read the emotions of some, yours pour off you like a vulcan's breath. That, the personal remark against your fellow, and that Ginniyeh suddenly seems not to trust you make me believe you have a _personal_ interest in him," Azazel explained, pouting at her.

"Well, he's our best chance at getting home," the warrior explained. "Of course I'd have a desire to protect him."

The demon king raised an eyebrow. "You've never been sentimental about it before. Not that you should — you were born here, in this foul dimension. You've never even _been_ to my Earth."

"My lord!" cried Jillian.

"Very well," sighed Azazel. "So, how does the boy feel about you?"

The demoness smiled. "He is fascinated by me, I believe."

"Work on that," Azazel instructed. "Help him to change his mind to the right decision."

"Yes, my lord," Jillian replied, before turning to leave.

"Oh, and Jillian," the demon lord added, causing her to snap her head back around, "for stepping out of line." He lifted his hand, holding a knife which he plunged toward her face. She didn't bat an eyelid, and at the last moment, Azazel pulled the weapon away and sunk the blade into Ydrazil's shoulder instead. "I may just have to promote you to warlord if this keeps up."

Jillian laughed and teleported away.

* * *

There we go. Sorry about the long delay — again. I can't believe it's been more than a whole month, yet it has. This one is just not coming along as fast as it might; and all the time I'm changing major plot details like some weird wannabe. On top of this, I'm trying to merge together too many storylines, most of which I don't know first hand. In total, by the time I introduced Jillian (not an OC although she hasn't had any real character development yet – and probably never will), I was down to an average of two paragraphs a day. Oh yeah, this is the thirteenth chapter, too, which has been known to cause problems in the past.

I came up with Kiwi Black's name myself – mostly. It's a Maori name (surprise, surprise), meaning 'guardian' (I think. Can someone back me up on this?) It shouldn't be that hard to pronounce, in actual fact — Like the various Polynesian languages, Maori is a more or less phonetic language, although apparently pronunciation differs depending on where you are in Aotearoa. Someone who actually lives in or has been to New Zealand might be able to tell you….  
Incidentally, 'Kiwi Black' is a shoe polish I used to use – way back when I went to a school that required you to wear shoes that you had to polish. I still have a tin of it around somewhere….

Thanks to **Dark Inu Fan**, **sleepy26**, **Kriszty**, **Miss Poisonous**, **UncannyAsianGirl**, **Remyslove**, **elfofdeath**, and the anonymous thesinisterbra for reviewing.

Responses to Reviews:

**thesinisterbra**: A valid observation. The explanation would be that Rogue, already having an imprint of Kurt's powers, doesn't need a new one to use them. This seems to contradict the implied remote absorption, however note here that Rogue had to _try_ to get up to date with Nightcrawler. Normally this wouldn't be the case.

**Miss Poisonous**: What you missed was that Rogue's been in denial about Remy for the duration of the fic, up until the point where her mutation was forced to kick in fully, and she sorted out her memories. I probably could have made that clearer, or I might just be no good at writing fluff, which wouldn't be surprising. Don't worry, she's going to cuddle up to stranger people very soon.

**Kriszty**: Maybe you should see the Nightcrawler entry in _Pros & Cons of Marrying an X-Man_?

**UncannyAsianGirl**: Didn't Destiny say that she was just setting traps for her and pushing her into them? No, wait, that was the Shadow King. I must admit that I've only read one issue and the preview pages for some others of the Mystique series, but I'll agree with you that the airplane wings are whack (and sound like something that belongs in a comic purely for kids). Gotta hurt indeed, 'specially when Rogue finds me. That girl can hit _hard_, I tell you.

**Dark Inu Fan**: I feel for you. I really do.

**elfofdeath**: Fascinating. Although Judaic demonology is not _quite_ as cut-and-dry as that, I'm afraid.


	14. Alliances

In her bed, Rogue sighed and rolled over. Remy had left a while ago, but there was again a presence in the room.

"Hello?" she asked the room. "Ah know you're there."

The air shifted slightly, but no reply came beside a barely audible weeping. Rogue realised it had been there for a while, she simply hadn't noticed it.

"Kitty?"

Still no reply.

"Ororo? Logan?"

Nothing.

"Mystique?"

The weeping paused before becoming almost indiscernibly louder.

"Mom?"

The weeping stopped abruptly. "_What?_" was the surprised reply.

"Don't try to play games," Rogue replied, and, sitting up, flicked a wrist. The lights turned on to reveal what appeared to be Kurt perched on the bedstead opposite, looking at her. "Don't look like that, either," continued Rogue, glaring in the apparition's direction. A blue glow surrounded it, and it morphed into the shape of Mystique.

The shape-shifter started to cry again. "It's all my fault," she started.

"Well that's the understatement of the century. Why are you bothering to tell me now?"

"I only wanted the best for you, and... Kurt, I didn't want to abandon him, but..."

"But nothing," admonished Rogue. "The fact, 'mother,' is that you did abandon him. You abandoned him, and you lied to and betrayed me. And when that didn't turn out the way you wanted, you abandoned me, too."

"I– I wanted you to know that I'm sorry. Again. You didn't want to listen before, and I only have myself to blame."

"That's right, you do." Rogue swung her feet over the edge of her bed, and held out an arm. "C'mere," she said.

When Mystique didn't move, she dragged the woman towards her with telekinesis. "Now, I want you to know something. Really know something," Rogue continued, putting an arm around her. "It should help you see things different." With that, she kissed her foster mother on the head.

Mystique began to recoil, but then realised that curiously, nothing seemed to be happening beyond that. "Wha–?" she started, and then the pain hit her.

Rogue was not absorbing Mystique. Now the process was happening in reverse. Rogue chose the memories that Mystique would receive, hers and Kurt's, and chose them carefully. The pain they'd felt, and the contrast that had with how other things had made them feel. The experiences they'd had that their mother had caused them to, and how that affected them.

Now Mystique burst properly into tears. "I didn't– that's precisely what I wanted to avoid," she admitted. "I didn't want you to have to go through the pain... that I did."

"I know," replied Rogue, and lying back, held the sobbing woman to her chest.

After about quarter of an hour, they were both fast asleep.

* * *

Elsewhere, Kurt's sleep was troubled. He tossed and turned, in his dreams trying to defeat his father and return home. Always without his powers, always with everyone against him. He never succeeded in any dream. In this one, Azazel had forced him to help, and now was killing of all his friends. Having just killed the rest of the X-Men, he now raised a sword above his head, ready to strike down a helpless Rogue...

Kurt woke with a start. He was in his prison, no longer bound by chains, but unable to leave the room — somehow he was able to port around inside it, but could not even make it to the other side of the door. Sitting up, he sighed, and looked around him.

He was surprised when Jillian appeared in the room. "Hey there," she said.

"What do you want?" Kurt asked.

"Wanted to talk a bit. Get to know you," she replied.

The boy raised an eyebrow. "Really? And why would you want to do that?"

"Hey, don't get all aggressive on me," Jillian said, and leapt on to the bed. "Maybe I just like you?"

Kurt glared at the emotive. "Huh. You're one of Azazel's faithful servants," he accused. "I don't trust you."

Jillian shook her head and leaned in close, whispering in his ear, "We don't all follow him like faithful puppies. You need to get out of here." She sat back and pouted. "Take me with you?"

Kurt ported across to the other side of the room. "What proof can you give me?" he asked.

"I'll help you escape," the woman offered, and jumped on him, embracing him.

_BAMF!_

Now they were in Nils's room. "That enough?" asked Jillian.

Kurt pushed her off him. "Okay, I guess that's a start...," he said, and walked over to Nils, who was still sleeping. He shook him gently. "Hey, wake up," he said.

"Five more minutes," mumbled Nils, before shaking his head and looking directly at Kurt. "Nightcrawler? What are you–?"

Kurt put a finger to his lips, Jillian took them both by the hand and ported all three of them into Eruera's room.

The Maori was already up. "Been expecting you," he said, not facing them. "What's the plan?"

"The four of us will need to work together," Jillian began. "Abyss, in this dimension you should be able to direct where your portal to Earth. Kurt and I can take us through, but we'll need your strength, Eruera."

"What about the rest of out brothers?" Kurt asked.

"The rest of your brothers," Jillian explained, "want to help your father get through. They can't do it without you, but rest assured that if you help them they can Azazel through your portals."

Eruera looked up suddenly. "Intruder," he said.

Working at the same time, Kurt grabbed Nils and Jillian took Kiwi Black's hand, and they quickly teleported away, just before the door burst in.

"Jillian," growled Ydrazil, stepping into the room.

Where the four landed, Azazel was already waiting, Ginniyeh and Ophis by his side.

"How could you possibly think I wouldn't know about your little insurrection," the demon said to Jillian, and signalled to Ophis, who grabbed her harshly by the wrists, tucking her arms behind her back.

"I was simply bringing them to you, lord," squeaked Jillian.

Ginniyeh slapped her face. "Liar," she said. "You can hide nothing from me."

Azazel advanced on his sons. "And you, you will help me," he said.

"**Go!**" shouted Jillian.

Kurt and the others backed away. "Let her go, and I'll consider it."

"Help me, and I might let her live," his father sneered.

"Run away!" Jillian yelled.

Kurt grabbed Nils and Eruera's hands, and ported away.

"You can't escape me!" bellowed Azazel. "I know every wind of this foul place!"

* * *

When Rogue woke up, Mystique was still asleep, weeping on her chest. The southerner moved her aside and sat up. As she was getting dressed, there was a knock on her door.

It was Dr. McCoy. "I've lost Mystique," he said. "Have you–?"

"She slept in here," Rogue stated, and pushed past Hank into the corridor.

"What?!" He looked into the room and was surprised to see Mystique sitting on Rogue's bed, rubbing her eyes.

The shape-shifter just looked back at him with sad eye as she stood. It was clear she had been crying.

"Hurry up, you two," said Rogue from behind Hank. "I want to get Kurt home some time today."

"Yes, of course," he replied, and followed her to the planning room. Mystique wasn't far behind.

Xavier, Jean, Logan, Amanda, Margali, and Colonel Fury were already present when the three of them arrived, and soon everyone else was piling into the room.

Margali had the spotlight. "The place they were bound is and island named 'La Isla des Demonas.' It is the place where our world is most thinly veiled from theirs, and where they are most likely to try and get through."

"I know the place," said Charles. "It's in Bermuda... I was at an archaeological dig there a few years back. I recall they found some odd items."

"Relics from a war long past," the sorceress explained. "One of the artefacts was a mystical stone used to send the demons away. I've had a look at it myself, and it's useless now."

"We'll need to set up some kind of front there," Logan supplied.

"Yes, probably," confirmed Charles. "It's going to be very dangerous, especially if we're to try and bring Kurt back."

"I'll mobilise the SHIELD bases around the area," Fury said.

"Thank you, Colonel," Charles replied. "We'll be there as soon as possible ourselves."

"Ah'm going to go there now," said Rogue. "Ah need to be there to figure out how to get Kurt back."

"We should concentrate on keeping their path back closed," argued Margali. "Kurt's absence is a sacrifice you're going to have to make."

Amanda walked to Rogue's side. "I disagree, mom," she said. "I'm going with Rogue."

"Logan, Ororo, Remy, Mystique, I want you with me," said Rogue.

"You can't possibly teleport that far," said Mystique, realising what her daughter intended to do.

"Professor, Forge found that Kurt's powers depended on magnetic fields, didn't he?"

"Yes, Rogue," Charles replied, "but–"

"Then Ah'll make us an expressway," Rogue continued. "You guys coming or what?"

Wolverine, Storm, Gambit, and Mystique walked to Rogue's side. "You sure about this, stripes?" asked Logan.

"Sure Ah'm sure," she replied. "Professor, Ah need a mental map of the area. You remember it well?"

"Yes, perfectly," said Charles. He concentrated for a moment, delivering a picture of where they would be going directly into Rogue's mind. "There. Be careful."

"Well see you when we arrive," Hank stated.

"Now, this is going to be a little strange," Rogue warned as her five companions huddled in with her. She began to visualise a path, and let Magneto's power flow. In a direct path to their destination, magnetically sensitive devices stopped working properly. Compasses the would normally point north swung to face Bermuda as Rogue created a vortex to travel through. Focusing on their destination, she ported the six of them to the former site of the dig.

They arrived in a clearing, to the sight of a SHIELD squadron aiming their guns at them.

"Hey, we're the good guys," growled Logan.

One of the soldiers spoke into a radio. "Colonel, six persons have arrived. A short guy wearing some kind of orange jumpsuit just declared they're the 'good guys.'"

"That'll be Logan," confirmed Fury. "Stand down, squad leader, those are your contacts."

The soldier raised an arm and signalled the rest of the squad to lower their weapons – they obeyed to a man. Saluting, he said "Sergeant Howlett presenting Beta squad." He turned to face the others. "Attention!"

"Sir!" shouted the rest of the squad, standing to attention and saluting.

"Hey, he looks just like you, Logan," laughed Rogue.

"We're not military, kid," Wolverine said to the sergeant. "So don't act like that."

"At ease," Howlett commanded. He made some hand signals, and the soldiers disappeared into the surrounding forest.

"Hey, anyone else feel that?" asked Rogue. She started walking towards a cliff behind where they'd landed.

"There's definitely something odd about those rocks," confirmed Storm.

"A few days back some kind of mutant walked up to that cliff, and just kept walking on through," supplied the sergeant.

"Well my opinion is, that's where we start lookin' for a way through," said Gambit, extending his staff. "You be careful there, cherè."

"Don't worry yourself, swamp-rat," replied Rogue. "I'm just lookin' for now."

"I think that's where the demon army was sent through to the other side," said Amanda.

Wolverine grunted and extended his claws. "Well, they better not try to come back through."

"Ah think there's some kind of hole here," said Rogue. "Ah can probably open it."

"Wait for the others," said Mystique. "What's on the other side is more dangerous than you imagine."

"They'll be here soon," Storm advised as the sound of heli-jets got louder.

Soon the forest around them was swarming with SHIELD personnel. Rogue, Ororo, and Amanda busied themselves investigating the cliff face while Logan, Gambit, and Mystique hunted above it for places to position troops to flank any forces that might somehow come through the rock and attack.

After about half an hour the X-Jet arrived, landing on the tableau above the cliff, followed shortly after by the XM-Velocity which touched down in the clearing. X-Men poured out of both, the last to exit the craft being Charles and Colonel Fury.

After speaking briefly with Logan, Fury gave his Sergeants their orders, and squads of soldiers poured up the rocks, with groups of three to five soldiers stationing themselves in every nook large enough to hold them. The X-Men positioned themselves around the cliff, with Gambit, Shadowcat, Colossus, and Storm stationing themselves above the cliff, guarding Xavier who had remained with the X-Jet. Wolverine and Mystique stood aside Rogue, and behind them a line containing Cyclops, Iceman, Beast, Sunspot, and Berserker. Jean Grey floated in the air above them, and the remaining X-Men held back in a cluster around the XM-Velocity, Fury and Amanda joining them. Margali watched from the woods. All readied themselves.

"_In your own time, Rogue,_" Xavier communicated telepathically.

Rogue concentrated for a moment, and then began to weave her hands in a complicated motion that spiralled outwards as though she were spinning a web with them. Soon a hole became apparent, growing even after she'd stopped moving her hands.

The reason she'd stopped was the army now visible on the other side of this portal. She and Mystique both gasped – It was much larger than the contingent of mutants and soldiers gathered around it.

"Well, this is going to be interesting," sneered Wolverine.

* * *

_Chapter Notes:_

Well that's the first chapter in quite a while.  
Thanks to everyone who hung in there and reviewers from ages past. Not too long left on this one. Stay tuned for the climactic battle.


	15. Mutant war

Kurt looked around and out of the cave they'd most recently landed in. "Looks like we're safe for now," he observed. He'd been teleporting his two brothers and himself around half-blind for the last hour, choosing spots that looked secure from a moderate distance. And just when they were getting comfortable, one of Azazel's servants would turn up.

"It won't last," sighed Eruera.

"We need a plan to get right out of here," agreed Nils.

Kurt shook his head in disbelief. The other two were right; it didn't matter where they went, the time it took for their pursuers to find them was tending to get shorter – to the point where the previous place they'd landed, Ydrazil and Ophis had been waiting, weapons ready. It had only been Kurt's quick reactions that had saved the three from obliteration, and at great risk because he hadn't though much about where he was going at all. The result had been this enormous cavern, which had a small opening down a sort of natural corridor at one end, and the other end looked like some kind of subterranean amphitheatre.

"Did you hear that?" asked Nils, suddenly.

"Hear what?" replied Kurt.

"I think he's referring to the quiet but menacing laughing sound," replied Eruera, who had backed up against the other two, and was now looking around apprehensively, drawing a weapon that he had previously wrested from one of Azazel's army.

"Oh," said Kurt. "That." He'd heard it himself, but put it down to a trick of the mind – which was probably a stupid idea, he now considered. Now there was a new problem, too. "Uh, guys," he said. "I can't 'port..."

Now the source of the laughing was revealed. Light erupted from crevasses at the edges of the cave, and an army of demonic mutants was revealed on the amphitheatre, which now looked much larger than it had previously appeared.

"I knew you'd end up here somehow," said Azazel, "The very place we staged our last stand against the Cheyarafim."

"I don't feel so good...," Nils mentioned.

"Me neither," Kurt started.

"No, I _really _don't feel so good," he brother slurred. Kurt turned to see Abyss' abdomen glowing strangely.

Eruera caught the boy as he collapsed, and Kurt turned again, and glared at Azazel. "What have you done to him?!" he demanded.

"Nothing," replied the demon. "But someone on the other side is opening the portal, it seems, just in the nick of time. Ironic, really."

Behind him, Kurt hurt a familiar growl. "Well, this is going to be interesting."

"We meet again, child," said Azazel, to someone else standing behind Kurt. "And I see you brought friends this time."

"Kurt, get back out he'ah!" yelled Rogue. "Ah'm losin' control over this thang already! Ah can't hold it forever!"

"Ophis, get her," commanded Azazel. "And will someone _please_ go and find out what is taking Ginniyeh so long with that traitor?"

"Kurt!" the southerner shouted again as the gargantuan figure bounded towards her, and Wolverine placed himself between the two.

"There are others here!" Kurt shouted back.

"We don't have to fight," assured Azazel as the two ferals clashed. "Agree to help me and we can end this battle," he continued as Logan's claws slashed through Ophis's weapon and then his arm.

"Don't believe him, Kurt!" shouted Mystique as Ophis's arm regrew and he shoved Wolverine to the side.

Rogue let go of what little hold she had left on the portal, and called on Juggernaut's strength to catch the giant feral's punch. Ophis was surprised, to say the least, that his massive power was held back by her comparatively feeble frame. He was even more shocked when the southerner grabbed one of his legs and threw him back through the portal. An optic blast to follow sent him flying through the air, and he landed at Azazel's feet.

The demon lord placed a restraining foot on the feral. "So, what shall it be, son?"

"I say hell with it," said a voice, and Jillian 'ported in next to Kurt.

"What happened to Ginniyeh?" Azazel asked, his mace a mask of calm.

"Oh, she's floating face down in a magma flow. You know how it is."

The demon lord now lost his temper. "**CHARGE!**" he yelled, and as one, his mutant army did so, led by Ydrazil and Ophis.

Jillian handed Kurt a sword. "Let's see this skill of yours," she said, and ran into the fray. Wolverine followed closely, and behind him was a contingent of SHIELD soldiers, led by Sergeant Howlett.

The teleporter chewed on his lower lip for a few moments before coming to a decision, and teleported directly to his father, sword ready to strike.

"I should have known you'd figure out that the power suppression was lifted," Azazel stated, easily parrying Kurt's attack, "you always were the special one. End this stupidity," he continued, stabbing back, "rule by my side."

"And you'll what?" asked Kurt, dodging his father's attack. "Bring peace and prosperity to all the land?" He followed up with a bold swing of of his sword that his demonic opponent somehow blocked, locking their swords at the hilt.

Behind them, the SHIELD teams were not doing as well as they'd hoped. They did not dare approach the opposition for hand to hand combat, and most of the demon army were only perturbed by their bullets which bounced of impenetrable hides or went straight through the shape-shifting bodies; The soldiers were more or less relying on what few explosive rounds they had. Teleporting mutants dodged their fire, and a few had even broken past their lines, rapidly converging on the X-Men themselves. Jean was doing as best as she could to hold them back with her telekinesis, but they continued to jump back and forth, bringing reinforcements. Cyclops and Berserker were almost constantly firing blasts into the approaching enemy, but there were too many for the two of them, and Iceman's balls of ice had little to no effect, evaporating in the hot and dry atmosphere of the other world. Wolverine was caught up fighting Ophis again, and Jillian was busy with Ydrazil.

Rogue had helped where she could, but was now feeling very burned out with the effort of using the imprinted power templates without compromising her team mates' ability to fight be reabsorbing them; Mystique had carried her back behind the line of X-Men.

Fury signalled for two teams to relieve the initial force he'd sent in, and then turned to the two. "We need you active, Rogue. How can that happen?"

"Ah just need a recharge," gasped the southerner. "A lot more energy'd be nice, too. Maybe to know what the hell Kurt thinks he's doing."

"I think I can help you with the energy," offered Warren, walking to them. "My getting involved in this fight is not the best idea." He held out his hand.

"Thanks for the offer, Warren, but you need ta be able to defend yehself," Rogue replied.

"I'll mend quicker than most," the modern-day Cheyaraphim riposted, "and you can do more than me in there."

"Okay," Rogue conceded, and removing a glove grasped his hand for a few seconds. Soon the black wings emerged from her back, and as Warren fell into Fury's arms, she felt the energy of the angelic being course through her. "We need to punch a hole through their forces," she said. "Ah need Gambit down here."

The Cajun had been busily dropping charged pebbles on the heads of any demons who happened to poke it out of the dimensional rift, which had greatly helped the X-Men's cause as the enemy's teleporters found themselves unable to jump past the rift. He looked up suddenly as the professor, who'd been monitoring the thoughts of his students the best he could, called directly into his head. Remy and vaulted down the cliff, and was at Rogue's side in seconds.

"Honey, can you make some space in there for me?" the girls asked. At the cliff face, Piotr jumped to the ground to take place alongside Beast and Sunspot who were now having to try to beat back the army's advance with brute strength. They had the advantage over defending a bottleneck, but the opposing army would surely overcome them by sheer force of numbers.

Remy looked around and spied Tabitha among the kids standing ready at the Velocity. "Yeah, I think I c'n manage that," he said when she looked back at him. As she slunk over, he turned to face the battle, and yelled "HEY METAL-MAN! Get over here."

Piotr disengaged his opponents and ran to his old friend's side. "What is it?" he asked.

"'S time fo' a one, two, three," explained the Cajun. "Boom-boom here is the one, I'm t' two, guess what you do?"

Piotr grinned. "Where to?"

"Raight in the middle over there," said Rogue, pointing through the portal.

"Full suppressing fire and get out to the edges," Fury said into his radio.

"One baby nuke, comin' up," Tabitha said gleefully, building a large explosive in her hands. Remy charged it up with more energy as she passed it over to Colossus, the three of them holding it together for a brief moment.

"FIRE IN T' HOLE!" yelled Gambit as the Russian fast-bowled the bomb in the portal's direction. Mutants and soldiers scrambled to get out of its way, but Gambit and Colossus ran after it, and Rogue took to the sky, following them.

Again surprising the others there, Mystique grabbed Fury's sub-machine gun and went after the other three also.

On the other side of the portal, Jillian stood up from Ydrazil's bloody corpse to see the dazzling, burning ball crashing towards her. Looking to her right, she saw Wolverine still wrestling with Ophis, and grabbed the Canadian's arm. "You're coming with me," she stated, and teleported them away.

Ophis stumbled when his opponent went missing, and got up just in time to see the ball upon him. Instinctively, he caught it.

Meanwhile, Azazel was winning the battle of strength with his son. "Your insolence is wearing my patience thin," he declared, pushing Kurt to the ground. "You will–" he started, then a look of disdain crossed his face. "What is going _on_ over there?!" he asked, turning to face the ruckus.

The explosion sent warriors flying. Many found cover, but most were rendered passive by the shock-wave that rattled the cavern. Ophis and those nearest to him were obliterated.

Behind him, Jillian landed with Logan. "Prelude to your destruction, 'bub," said the feral, and leapt.

Azazel turned sharply and caught Wolverine's strike in one hand, discharging electricity into his skeleton. As Logan collapsed to the ground, the demon lord lashed out at lightning speed and grabbed Jillian by the neck, hoisting her into the air. "_You_ I will destroy, traitor," he hissed, and began to crush her throat.

Kurt leapt from the ground and tackled his demonic father in one swift movement, and they rolled to the floor of the cave, bouncing off rocks, each one trying to gain the upper hand.

Across from them, at the portal, Gambit, Colossus, Beast, Cyclops, Sunspot, Berserker, and Iceman, charged into the stunned mutants, dealing with those who were lucid enough to fight back. Rogue flew in ahead as they were doing this, and Mystique ran across the floor below her, unable to keep up but making an effort to not fall back too far. Jean was in not long after with Magma and Shadowcat, and with the help of a small team of SHIELD operatives they were soon helping the remaining soldiers that had been hurt back out the portal.

As she approached the wrestling mutants ahead of her, Rogue saw Azazel gain the upper hand again. Standing up on Kurt's chest, he kicked the blue mutant's sword away and held the point of his own to Kurt's throat.

Rogue quickly swooped down and crashed into Azazel's side, pushing him off her brother. They rolled and both stood. Azazel struck out with his sword, but rogue caught it in a metal hand and wrenched it from him, crushing the weapon as she threw it away, and swung her other fist at him. He pushed the blow aside and they continued exchanging punches for a while until finally Azazel's thousands of years of experience won over and he pinned the southerner against a wall. In desperation she grabbed the bare skin of his face.

"Nice try, but I'm afraid that won't help you," the demon lord said as Rogue's absorption powers completely failed to do anything. She could feel her powers trying to work, but they were having no effect on this enemy. "I have long had a resistance to any such thing," continued Azazel, "but let's see if you can say the same thing to _my_ powers."

Rogue gritted her teeth as the electric fire burned across her skin. The scorched rock behind her crackled, but she endured it, glaring at her opponent. "Yeah? Well take this!" she exclaimed, and fired an optic blast at him. When that seemed to have no effect on him she charged his skin with kinetic energy and released it, causing explosion all around him, but this did not seemed to faze the demonic mutant. Reasoning that any kind of electric attack would be pointless, she began using telekinesis to hurl small at him, but her powers were weakening under the strain of his ionic fire and he barely warranted them worth flinching.

He did notice, however, when behind him Mystique opened fire. She emptied an entire thirty round clip of armour-piercing bullets into his back, which was sufficient distraction at least for Rogue to push him off herself. She wrapped a foot around his leg, and he fell to ground as Mystique picked up Kurt's sword. Fluidly the woman leapt at the demon lord, slamming the weapon's point home through his chest, making him screech loudly before falling unconscious.

Rogue shook herself as the last of the electricity crackled between her fingertips, and ran over to Kurt...

Outside, Margali had spent this time readying herself to seal the portal between worlds. Her incantations now complete, she held the essence of power in her hands, and began to walk towards the interface, the family of mutants still inside. As she approached, Amanda realised that her mother had decided that everything was taking too long and would close it whether they were ready or not. She ran to stop her, and faced her mother just in time for her to cast the spell. Amanda raised a hand to block it, power erupting around them. Several of the X-Men tried to approach, but the force was too strong for even Jean Grey to penetrate.

"What are you doing?" Margali demanded. "Get out of the way!"

"Stopping you from trapping them in there," her daughter replied...

Inside, Kurt coughed a few times and sat up.

"Just what did were you thinkin'?" asked Rogue. "We came to rescue you, and ya tried to blow to whole thing by attacking the guy we're rescuing you from!"

"I... I don't know," Kurt admitted, looking away

"We're not out of the woods yet," Mystique piped in, indicating the power struggle happening outside when her children looked up.

Rogue sighed and looked back at her brother. "Can you get Logan out of here?" she asked.

"What about my brothers?" Kurt replied.

"Don't you worry, I'll see to Abyss and Black," said Jillian, brushing herself off as she walked over. "I can get the kid through his own portal." With that, she teleported away.

Kurt helped Logan up and teleported away also. Standing behind Mystique, Rogue wrapped her arms around her mother's waist. "Ah can't get us all the way to the portal," she said, "but Ah think Ah can get us close enough," and launching into the air she teleported.

The two of them reappeared about 50 feet from the interface, as high up into the air as Rogue could get them. She allowed some free fall to pick up speed, then unfurled her wings and swept through the portal as Kurt and Logan ran across just below. Just after they crossed the threshold, the portal somehow inverted, and suddenly began to suck them back into it. Kurt and Rogue both teleported their passengers to safety, but Amanda was sucked through, and the last thing they heard was her scream as Margali's spell sealed the portal, revealing Nils, Eruera, and Jillian leaning against the rocks.

"No," gasped Margali, eyes wide.

Somewhat louder, Kurt screamed "**NO!**" and ran up to Margali. Grabbing her wrists, he demanded, "What have you done?!"

The woman simply stood there, shocked, as Piotr put a hand on Kurt's shoulder. "All is not lost," he said. "My sister is also a prisoner of a place called limbo. Maybe they will find each other. We _will_ find them."

Now Margali spoke. "Amanda can look after herself," she said. "She is true to the winding way, and her magic is strong."

This caused Kurt to blink. "Vhat?"

"Did she never tell you she was a sorceress? Well I'll warrant she'll be back. There's nothing we can do for her here, at any rate."

"C'mon Kurt," said Rogue. "Let's go home."

* * *

_Chapter Notes_:

Not much to say about this one, except that battle scenes are a bugger to write.

Anyway, a big thanks to **rogue raven19**, **Dark Inu Fan**, and the anonymous random girl, for reviewing the last chapter.

Next chapter we conclude the story.


	16. Conclusion

In the inhospitable landscape, Amanda ran, clothes torn, body bleeding. She had found no food or drink, and did not know how much longer she could last, or continue running from the beings that hunted her. What was worse, sometimes they would predict where she was going, and the vile creatures would be waiting for her in ambush.

It was exactly this that happened now. Gagging, she pushed a hand forward and they were flung aside by an invisible force, but she collapsed to the ground. The lizard-like creatures jumped on her again, but were repelled by a bubble that she now surrounded herself with.

It had been two weeks, at least. When would they come for her?

She looked up again, and saw a wilderness. A foreboding jungle. Hope for sustenance.

* * *

In the common room at the Xavier Institute, Azazel's sons sat around the fire, looking sheepishly at each other while most of the X-men sat or stood variously around the rest of the room. One notable exception was Xavier himself, and another was Hank who'd disappeared off with Forge after a brief discussion with Nightcrawler about two hours previous.

Finally, Kiwi Black broke the silence. "Can anyone tell me where the nearest pub is?"

"I c'n show you, mon ami," replied Gambit from behind the couch.

"Sugah, you're not old enough ta drink," Rogue accused.

"Hey, just 'cause I know where'tis don't mean I go in dere."

"Liar."

Kurt stood up nervously, and then sat down again. "I worry for Margali," he said in a concerned tone. "Every time anyone speaks to her, she talks like it's no bother, but I think she's breaking down inside."

"It's been a few hours," observed Scott.

"For us, maybe," replied Rogue. "It could've been any amount of time for Amanda. Maybe days, maybe years..." She sighed and looked down at the cuts and burns on her arms, where Azazel's hands had been.

"Well, at least I can walk around without fearing that I'll suck everything into my stomach randomly," said Nils, trying to lighten the air a little. "That's a plus in my book."

"Why won't this work?!" shouted Rogue, throwing her arms up in the air. The force she exerted on them split one of the cuts open again, and it began to bleed copiously.

"Healing factor shoulda' dealt with that by now," Logan noted. "Maybe you need a top-up?" he asked, offering the southerner his hand in an unusual demonstration.

"None of it's working at all," she replied. "Ah don't seem to be able to do any of it." She touched his hand by way of demonstration – no absorption or even odd feeling was experienced by Logan. "It's just stopped," she continued.

"Suits me," said Remy.

"Yeah, it would," Rogue growled.

"Hey, you been wanting to be able to touch fo' a long time."

"But it's just– it's not right. It's not _me_ any more."

"Well, let's at least deal with those wounds," Warren offered, and pulling a knife from his belt, cut into his own hand. He let the blood drip onto Rogue's arm, and to everyone's astonishment the cuts closed over and the blisters disappeared.

"The hell?" asked Wolverine as he observed the Cheyaraphim's own cut heal more rapidly than anything he could have managed himself.

Warren shrugged. "Not something I've tried before, but I've known for a while that I heal myself. The ability to heal others was in the documents that appeared on my doorstep a few days back."

"What documents?" asked Kurt.

"Someone dropped what seems to be a complete history of the battle between the Cheyaraphim and Neyaphem," Angel explained. "That's the 'angels' and 'demons.' I mean dropped, too – they cracked the pavement on impact. It seems there's others like me out there, but... I'm not sure if there's too many more like you left. I had hoped it would be useful to Professor Xavier, but I had no idea it was so urgent."

"Well maybe I can find some answer to the questions I have there," Wagner said. "I wish Mystique hadn't disappeared off again."

"She's not exactly one to start playin' happy fam'lies with ev'ra one," observed his foster sister. "Plus Ah reckon certain someones had been dropping none-too-subtle hints that she wasn't welcome to stick around." She glanced at Wolverine.

"Well, this is certainly interesting, Warren," said Xavier from the door, before wheeling into the room, "but very one-sided. I hope our new friend can help us with filling out the rest of the story," he continued, nodding to Jillian who was currently staring out the window in wonderment. One of the major things catching her attention was the rainstorm outside, something she'd never seen before.

"Certainly an interesting character and I'd like to hear what she can tell us," agreed Warren, "just as long as she really has stopped randomly trying to kill me." He looked down at the large tear in his shirt – blood stained the edges, but there was no scarring at all on his skin. "That last time was pretty close – I think she might have actually nicked my aorta."

Presently, Forge stepped in, holding a familiar looking device in one hand. "You ready, Kurt?" he asked.

"Finally," the teleporter replied.

* * *

Amanda sat and sighed. The wilderness she'd seen had been some sort of illusion, but an illusion that had somehow dropped food and drink into her reality. Maybe they were trying to taunt her? Well, she'd eaten it anyway.

"Amanda!" a voice cried out from nearby.

"Kurt?" she gasped quietly.

"Amanda!"

"Kurt! Is that you?!"

The furry blue mutant appeared around a rock formation. He was wearing a sort of electric box on his chest. "Amanda! I found you! Oh, but look at you. What has happened?"

"It's about time you showed up, it's been weeks" was the girls only explanation. For now.

On the other side of a disc-shaped portal, a young blonde Russian girl looked on from a wild forest. ‹Say hello to my brother,› she whispered in her native tongue as they disappeared, and wept a silent tear as she closed the portal.

_Fin_

* * *

_End notes:_

That's it. No more story for you. I had been intending to leave Amanda out there and maybe have her meet up with Illyana (Piotr's sister for those who don't know) in a later story, but changed my mind.  
So you're all asking, given that I introduced a new character in the last paragraph, 'will there be a sequel?' Well the answer to that is very definitely a 'maybe,' but clearly I need to find out a lot more about Illyana, Belasco, and the like first (you might have guessed I actually sought out the "Draco" books for this fic). In the meantime if you don't mind M rated fics, you can check out my AU story "Truly Rogue," which runs parallel to much of the series. I've just completed season one :)

A Big **Thank You** (with a cherry on top, unless you don't like cherries, in which case shame on you) to everyone who reviewed, you all really helped. Especial thanks to UncannyAsianGirl, who helped me correct some quite major problems with the middle of the story, though you may not realise it.


End file.
